Paraglide
by Lucille Anne Newman
For every kind of exercise and training there's an area on Fort Bragg made specifically for that purpose. When a call for a new landing zone was made, members of the Integrated Training Area Management program and 618th Engineer Company, made it happen when they built Ram Landing Zone.
The ITAM program is set up to improve the training environment for Soldiers at Fort Bragg as part of sustainable range management.
"Ram (Landing Zone) is one of many projects," said Darrin Burns, Range Control ITAM program. "This was scheduled on June 22 to be ready for use by Aug. 22. To my knowledge, this area hasn't been used as a drop zone for a very long time. I know the Marines used it at times for a forward support base and the artillery used a portion (of the area) for their firing positions prior to us building the air strip."
Burns said when completed the strip will be about 1,100 feet long by 80 feet wide and designed for tactical unmanned aerial vehicles and will comply with environmental standards.
"Before we could even start we had to have an approved erosion control plan with the state, because any time you have to disturb more than one acre (of wooded areas) you have to have a plan," he explained.
He said from getting the plans back and coordinating with the water quality office it took 30 days before they could allow 618th Eng. Co. to break ground and clear the trees.
"We were given an operation order to construct an FLS (field landing strip) for the 313th (Military Intelligence) UAV," said Staff Sgt. Don Lebel, 618th Eng. Co., "A corps conducted project for MI reconnaissance type stuff."
Lebel said from the time they broke the ground they were able to meet deadlines despite a few weather problems.
"Just after the Fourth of July when we started digging, we were impeded by rain for 20 days or so which prolonged the project and then the heat," he said. "The heat started causing mechanical breakdowns and the rain flooded the worksite which required a day or two to aerate before we (could) begin compaction."
Lebel said it was important to keep the soil dry so that a chemical product they were using could turn the soil into cement.
"The chemical was interesting because it was developed using a waste product from traditional cleaners," he explained.
"It's environmentally safe and when you pour it on dirt it turns into concrete. This is the first time our company ever used soil cement because in the past we used red clay with lime mixed in it for concrete repairs. It's definitely an invaluable learning experience, and as long as the project goes okay, we'd probably try to continue using that product."
Lebel said for now the weather has been fine and they were able to compact the new soil cement and prepare it for sealing.
"The heat was not only hard on the equipment, the Soldiers each consumed 50 to 60 gallons of water a day," he said. "It was definitely a rewarding experience for myself and the Soldiers in that it was a corps-level project."
The project completed as scheduled, and on Aug. 23, 313th MI's UAV platoon was ready to test the strip with their UAV, the Shadow 200.
Although the rain kept the small planes grounded the first day, on Aug. 24, 313th launched the first UAV into the air.
"It was a good launch," said Sgt. Daniel Ehrlich, 313th MI. "This is actually our second launch since our return from Iraq. (Ram) is a new field for us, there will be no drops or airborne operations happening on this strip ... it's made just for the UAVs and this will be all ours to allow us to get more flight time in."
He said although the landing zone looks a bit bare for now, there will be hangars built along with additional planes and maybe a few more UAV platoons who need the strip to maintain their skills through training.
