AIR FORCE ERA ENDS ENGINEER SQUADRONS DISBAND.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE - As two Air Force civil engineer squadrons furled their unit flags for the last time, disbanding in a cost-cutting move, there was no flight of military aircraft passing overhead.

Instead, a convoy of squadron vehicles, driven by civilians who will be replacing the airmen, rumbled past the ceremony: a backhoe, a 20-ton dump truck, a 55-foot bucket truck, a boom crane, a light maintenance truck and a pickup truck towing a high-pressure sewer cleaner.

``We are changing the way we operate,'' Maj. Gen. Doug Pearson, Edwards Air Force Base's top officer, said at the squadrons' joint ``inactivation'' ceremony. ``This is what transforming our Air Force is all about.''

Of the approximately 135 airmen who will be leaving Edwards by December, the general said: ``They are not leaving the Air Force. They are merely being used where they are needed most.''

The 95th and 795th Civil Engineer Squadrons were responsible for a wide range of duties, from overseeing the design and construction of new base buildings to running Edwards' sewer and water systems, repairing building air conditioning and electrical systems, and patching holes in roads.

The squadrons are disbanding as the result of what the Air Force calls an A-76 study, named after the U.S. Office of Management and Budget circular that spells out its guidelines, which said a streamlined all-civilian organization could do the work more efficiently.

The move, announced in February after some three years of study, will result in the 135 airmen and about 430 civilian co-workers being replaced by fewer than 300 civilians, who will be government employees.

The A-76 study recommended against hiring private firms under contract to do the work.

The 70-member 95th Transportation Squadron, whose personnel drive and maintain base vehicles, is scheduled to disband later this year.

``Basically we're getting leaner and meaner. We're going to work smarter,'' said Col. James Judkins, commander of the 95th Civil Engineer Group, which contained the two engineer squadrons.

Base employees expect that the change will mean they will be doing more minor maintenance jobs, like replacing burned-out fluorescent tubes in office light fixtures.

Thursday's ceremony took place on a green lawn under the shadow of a pedestal-mounted P-59 fighter, the United States' first jet fighter and the first aircraft tested at what is now Edwards.

Airmen stood in ranks behind their squadron's guidons - the pennants bearing their units' numbers - wearing camouflage rather than dress uniforms as a reminder that the United States is at war.

After speeches by their commanders, airmen furled and cased in black the guidons, then marched off the field.

The squadron's personnel will be leaving Edwards gradually through December to new assignments. The transition to the new all-civilian engineering organization is expected to take place from August through November.

Squadron commanders will be leaving first. Lt. Col. Harry Briesmaster, 795th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, will attend the Air War College in Alabama. Lt. Col. Greg Emanuel, 95th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, will become base civil engineer at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

The civil engineer squadrons have been at Edwards in one form or another for nearly seven decades.

Civil engineers arrived in the 1930s when Lt. Col. Henry ``Hap'' Arnold - later promoted to command the Army Air Forces during World War II - established the Muroc Bombing and Gunnery Range at barren Muroc Dry Lake. The engineers built targets, barracks and chow halls.

``It's a commendable past,'' Pearson said.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Lt. Col. Harry Briesmaster, 795th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, furls the squadron's guidon on Thursday.

(2 -- color) Members of the 95th and 795th Civil Engineer Squadrons salute Thursday at their inactivation ceremony at Edwards.

(3) Wearing fatigues to acknowledge the nation's wartime status, members of a disbanded Air Force squadron march off the field at the end of the inactivation ceremony Thursday.

(4) Lt. Col. Greg Emanuel, 95th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, kisses his wife, Beth, at the inactivation ceremony.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer