Commanders commence demolition project with a smash

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman William A. O'Brien
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  To mark the beginning of the final phase of the base's housing upgrade, base leadership took the controls of a hydraulic excavator to start flattening one of the few remaining sections of old base housing Jan. 21.

The demolition started with Brig. Gen. Robert Nolan, Air Force Flight Test Center commander, using the excavator to begin the demolition of a house. Following General Nolan, Col. Gregory Schwab, 95th Air Base Wing commander, Col. David Bek, Individual Mobilization Augmentee to Colonel Schwab and Col. Joe Torres, 95th ABW vice commander, each took a turn operating the machine. It took about an hour to raze the structure.

Accustomed to flying F-16s, the general said once he got used to the different controls, using the excavator was an exciting experience.

"It's every little kid's dream and I really had a lot of fun. I'm really happy that the Air Base Wing honored me by allowing me to come out here and knock down one of these old houses on Edwards," said General Nolan.

General Nolan said he enjoys living in base housing and thanked The 95th Civil Engineering Division for their hard work in completing this nearly decade-long task.

"The 95th Civil Engineering Division team has done a marvelous job with base housing at Edwards Air Force Base," said General Nolan. "We now are the model for the United States Air Force from a base housing standpoint. We are a model community and any family would love to live in a home on Edwards Air Force Base."

Once this final demolition project is complete, the oldest house occupied on Edwards will have been built in 1999.

"We have one of the youngest inventories of Air Force-owned base houses anywhere in the world," said Colonel Schwab. "Our predecessors worked hard to make this happen. And in a location that's remote and isolated like Edwards, it's all about the homes and all about building the community."

Colonel Schwab said just as important as having everyone in more modern housing is the scenery that demolishing these houses will create.

"Taking care of the last of our vintage 1950s homes is very exciting because we know we're in better homes now and that these old homes are a thing of the past. Now we're going to get all this open space back," he said.

Over the next six to nine months, the Temporary Lodging Facilities will be moved from their current location into an area in Joshua Acres, closer to the base's amenities.

"We're really excited about our temporary lodging facility move," said Colonel Schwab. "We've got permission from Headquarters Air Force to move the TLF area into homes that were built during this project in Joshua Acres, near to the Base Exchange and Commissary. So in the next 6-9 months, we'll be moving the TLFs out of this area and into really nice two-, three- and four-bedroom homes so that we can take better care of our Airmen as they transit in and out of Edwards."

James Judkins, 95th Civil Engineering Division director, said that he was grateful for the support his team has received from past and present commanders to get this project completed.

"The completion of the construction of the new houses on base along with the destruction of the old was a monumental task the likes of which could not have been successful without the unwavering support of Brig. Gen. Robert Nolan, AFFTC commander, Col. Gregory Schwab, 95th ABW commander and their predecessors," said Mr. Judkins. "Under their guidance, we were able to replace 796 new houses and demolish 1,193 excess housing units."