Restoring the power: 2 CES electrical systems Airmen come to the rescue

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Luke Hill
  • 2nd Bomb Wing Public Affairs
BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. --  In an age when virtually everything is powered by electricity, few things are more frustrating than a power outage. Because the power often goes out at night or in inclement weather, it can be a daunting and sometimes dangerous task to restore power.

The 2nd Civil Engineer Squadron electrical systems Airmen are the ones who wake up in the middle of the night, work around dangerously high voltages, and weather the storm to ensure the base has power.

“Power outages never happens when you want them to,” said Staff Sgt. Scott Baxley, 2nd CES electrical systems craftsman. “It normally happens in the middle of the night or during a heavy storm and you have to make repairs on high voltage equipment with limited visibility or while you’re soaked.”

Restoring power to the base is not only a dangerous task, it is also time consuming. Before Airmen can even begin to make repairs, they have to find out the exact point of power loss and why. This consists of driving up and down power lines and testing them to find out where the problems are and the cause of the outage.

It’s a lot of guess and check work, and sometimes it’s a very simple, easy fix; and other times, it’s several things that can go wrong to cause an outage said Baxley.

While power outages take many of our comforts away, they can cause the mission come to a screeching halt. Electrical systems Airmen have a priority list of which sections of base must have power restored first. The flightline and other mission essential areas take precedence.

Although many people may cringe at the thought of climbing a power line and working around high voltages, for Baxley, it’s a source of pride.

“When you get restore power and people can take a warm shower, or when you’re deployed and Airmen can talk to their families, it makes it all worth it,” said Baxley.