BONNER SPRINGS, Kan. — Soldiers from the 249th Engineer Battalion, Prime Power, put their lineman skills to the check after they competed within the 38th International Lineman’s Rodeo at the National Agricultural Center and Hall of Fame in Bonner Springs, Kansas, on Oct. 15, 2022.
Teams and apprentices from 4 of the 5 corporations inside the battalion competed: three energetic corporations, Alpha Company, Charlie Company and Headquarters and Headquarters Company, and the battalion’s reservists, Delta Company.
Competitors participated as journeyman groups, which encompass two journeyman climbers and one journeyman groundman, who specialise in constructing and sustaining electrical energy programs, and as particular person apprentices, who had been there to practice their skills in hopes of changing into a journeyman.
Teams and apprentices competed in 4 occasions, two of which had been recognized occasions and the opposite two had been a thriller till the day earlier than the occasion. Each occasion examined a special set of skills and gave Prime Power troopers the prospect to practice these skills.
“We are here for justification of our skills… It is to prove ourselves in the industry – that we are an asset and that our knowledge justifies us being in this industry,” Sgt. 1st Class Virgil Jordan of Charlie Company out of Fort Belvoir, Virginia, stated. “[The competitors] do this on a daily basis [and we don’t] so to be here and be alongside of them… we know our training is paying off.”
As a Prime Power soldier, engaged on energy strains shouldn’t be their “everyday” job. The group of troopers competing within the rodeo maintain the 12P Military Occupation Specialty, Prime Power, but additionally took on an identifier of U4, Power Line Distribution Specialist, beneath their MOS, which supplies them the extra accountability of engaged on energy strains when that ability is required on missions.
Their “normal” 12P jobs embody three completely different missions: National Response Framework missions, or NRF, the place they deploy to help catastrophe aid efforts throughout the nation, Task Force Power or Safe missions, the place they journey to bases and conduct security checks on electrical programs, and Prepare to Deploy missions, or PTDL, the place they arrange new base camps abroad.
“We are the force that brings sustainability to the battle front,” Jordan stated. “We build, sustain and support.”
Many Prime Power troopers, even some that attended the rodeo, are both actively supporting or simply completed supporting NRF missions in Florida within the wake of Hurricane Ian, and in Puerto Rico within the wake of Hurricane Fiona.
“I went from Florida directly to [Kansas] after being in Florida for about two weeks,” Staff Sgt. Rafiqy Tucker of Alpha Company out of Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, stated.
His crew, and many others throughout Florida and Puerto Rico, traveled to places previous to the hurricanes to pre-stage a response effort and activated after the hurricane to offer non permanent emergency energy. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers helps to coordinate, run and facilitate the non permanent emergency energy missions in each Florida and Puerto Rico.
“[Our mission is] to kick out generators and restore temporary emergency power to facilities that are deemed by FEMA as mission critical. Typically [the mission critical] facilities are hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and water distribution plants,” Capt. Adam Hamilton, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District undertaking engineer, stated.
Hamilton is a part of USACE Northwestern Division’s Power Planning and Response Team and is at the moment serving as an influence mission commander on a short lived emergency energy mission in Puerto Rico. Hamilton works with Prime Power troopers day by day within the area.
“[Prime Power’s] most important thing is assessments. When someone requests a generator, we send them out immediately to go recon a site. They will deem whether that site needs a generator. If it [needs one], then they need to figure out what generator would be suitable for that site… They use their technical expertise to determine if and at what level the site is powered,” Hamilton stated.
Though they aren’t restoring powerlines like they’re at the Lineman’s Rodeo, their industry skills nonetheless switch into these emergency conditions.
“[Understanding] the lineman facet is very beneficial because if I need to figure out the power coming into a building for a generator, I can go and look at their overhead lines and say, they have this many insulators, this many lines coming off of the transformer and this is the way this system is set up, so it is most likely this voltage or power coming into this building and can then pick a generator,” Tucker stated. “I don’t get to do the job of climbing up the pole all the time but having that skill set definitely is beneficial because it allows me greater insight into how utilities systems are set up.”
Events just like the Lineman’s Rodeo assist Prime Power troopers practice for all sorts of conditions, in order that when they’re referred to as to satisfy a mission, they are going to exceed the expectations.
“The outstanding Non-commissioned Officers that have remained flexible and able to execute beyond expectation repeatedly are just awesome. I’ve been able to work with Prime Power two times now and they continue to impress me every time,” Hamilton stated.
Journeyman Results Top 30%:
64. 249th EN BN C Co (Prime Power) – Jason Wilson, William Coleman, Steven Fargo
Apprentice Results Top 30%:
33. 249th EN BN HHC (Prime Power) – Luis Davila
Full outcomes may be discovered here.