I’m sure most of you know that member of the 819th RED HORSE unit (in addition to the 219th RED HORSE and Malmstrom AFB Services and Civil Engineering units) returned home to Great Falls this week, after serving many months in Iraq and other “hot” places. It’s great to see so many of our local businesses welcoming them home! I snapped a few pix of some of the signs along 10th Avenue South, but missed probably as many. And if you’ve ever wondered what “RED HORSE” means: Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron, Engineer. And here’s a brief history lesson. In short, RED HORSE is sort of like the Air Force equivalent of Navy Seabees; they build things in harsh environments, such as buildings, utility systems, runways, towers, and such.
UPDATE, January 2008: The RED HORSE at Malmstrom is projected to grow soon!
The 819th Red Horse Squadron will gain 162 active-duty positions, a 58 percent boost, over the next 30 months, according to a Malmstrom Air Force Base spokesman…The extra folks will trickle into Malmstrom between this spring and the end of 2010, he said. They’re expected to be civil engineers, who already have core construction skills and will learn Red Horse specialties geared to deploying and building projects rapidly.
