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Show TIMES October 26, 2006 75th Civil Engineer Group to face personnel cuts BY MITCH SHAW Hilltop Times staff Due to Air Force wide reductions, the 75th Civil Engineer Group will loose approximately 250 military members from their force in early 2007. As part of personnel reductions across the Air Force to have funds available to modernize the Air Force fleet of aircraft, the service has decided that military members in the civil engineering organizations from Hill, Eglin AFB. Fla., and Robbins AFB, Ga., will all be cut. "All the military in the civil engineering group will go," said Col. "O maintain as an organization clay in and day out," Colonel Briesmaster said. "We still have a tremendous workload, but we will just have to prioritize." Taking the biggest hit from the cuts will be the 75th Civil — Col. Harry Briesmaster Engineer Squadron, which handles all operations and maintenance of ficienlly as possible. "Right now our population is built Hill's facilities and infrastructure. on the total amount of square foot- The 75th CES will eventually lose approximately 200 military memage that we have to operate and ur current corporate structure has said that modernization of the fleet is paramount, so as a result we are taking reductions of personnel" Harry Briesmaster, 75th Civil Engineer Group commander. "Our current corporate structure has said that modernization of the fleet is paramount, so as a result, we are taking reductions of personnel." The 75th CEG currently has a work force of about 850 people. Loosing more than a quarter of that workforce will require the unit to manage manhours and workload as ef- Train to fight Hill member prepares for deployment Photo by Senior Airman Gibbs 1st Lt. Ashley Norris, Public Affairs officer deployed from Hill, practices shooting her weapon during pre-deployment training at Fort Bragg, N.C. as her assistant gunner Staff Sgt. Jeff King, videographer with Combat Camera stationed at Charleston AFB, lends a hand. USAA can help protect your belongings for as little as $5 a month. Whether you live on or off base, in government quarters or in government housing, could you really afford to replace what you own? USAA Personal Property Insurance protects your belongings from many kinds of disasters, from theft and identity theft to floods and hurricanes. bers, or about half of their current workforce. "When you look at operations and maintenance, there is really no way to stream-line what we do, said Lt. Col. Brett Crazier, 75th CES commander. "When you are digging a ditch, there are a certain number of hours that it takes to accomplish that work, that won't change just because your workforce has been reduced." To offset the cuts, there is an ongoing initiative that will call for approximately 75 civilian replacements to the group, including about • 23 civilian firefighters. "The fire department will probably benefit from this," said Lt. Col. Craig Biondo, 775th Civil Engineer Squadron commander. "They will have a oneto-one civilian replacement ratio. So they'll have the same number in their workforce, but won't have to worry about deployments." The 75th CES will also go into a "specialty-shop" method of operating in order to combat the cuts. Previously all engineering specialists were housed in a combined shop. Before, specialists like plumbers and electricians were all in one shop, now they will be separate. This will allow the workload to be belter managed. The changes will probably cause some inconvenience to the 75th CEG's customers. Instead of 'one-stop shopping', customers may have to go to numerous shops to meet their needs. "We are still going to remain customer oriented," Colonel Briesmaster said. "We just ask everyone to be patient and work with us. We have carpenters, plumbers, electricians, sheet metal workers, firefighters and engineers. 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