Minute Man Park Opens at the 125th Fighter Wing

  • Published
  • By Nitza J. Reynolds
  • 125th Fighter Wing
Airman from the 125th Fighter Wing and the 202nd REDHORSE squadron officially opened the new Minute Man Park during a ribbon cutting ceremony at the 125th Fighter Wing on Oct. 15, 2015. According to Senior Master Sgt. James Cobb, Engineering Superintendent of the 202nd REDHORSE Squadron (202RHS), the construction of the new park took a total of two months but planning took a lot longer.

"This started about two and a half years ago, with a young Airman in services, who had a great idea of doing intramural sports." said Col. Brian Simpler, 125th Fighter Wing Commander. "In the past it was something that we thought we didn't have time for, but Senior Airman Bell briefed this awesome plan about how we were going to increase the Wing's esprit de corps, which inspred us to make it happen."

Before construction started the field was a large ditch. Airmen from the 202RHS used bulldozers, graders and wheel loaders to make what was a ditch into a smooth field. They crowned the field to prevent water from collecting in the middle along with adding underground piping and catch basins.

"We have a lot of new Airmen in the shop now and a lot of them got a chance to come out and train on this project," said Tech. Sgt. Charles Crumity, 202RHS Equipment Lead. "A lot of Airmen got a lot of good training."

The construction of Minute Man Park didn't just benefit the Airmen at the 125th Fighter Wing; it was a great training exercise for the Airmen at the 202nd REDHORSE squadron.

"For us the benefit was that we got good hands on training especially for when it comes time to train how we to fight," Cobb said. "Our fight is to build things, so when we go into an austere location we have to know how to use our equipment.

Future plans for the field include football games, soccer games and possibly the addition of a running track.