126th Civil Engineers receive training in Israel Published March 14, 2016 By Capt. Matthew Boice & SrA Trent Steinmann 126th Civil Engineer Squadron 3/14/2016 - Scott Air Force Base, Illinois -- -- The 126th Civil Engineer Squadron helped the Israeli Air Force prepare for upcoming exercise, Juniper Cobra, during a deployment from Oct. 26 through Nov. 7, 2015 to Hatzor Air Base, Israel. Lt. Col. Marc Eccher, commander of the 126th Civil Engineer Squadron, commanded the 34 member team. Juniper Cobra is a large-scale joint ballistic missile defense exercise involving the United States and Israel. The exercise first began in 2001 and is held every two years. The purpose of the exercise is to test U.S. and Israeli defense systems in response to a simulated missile attack. Hatzor Air Base is in Western Israel near the coastal city of Ashdod. The base originally founded by the British Royal Air Force and is now home to Israel's 101st and 105th fighter squadrons. Members of the 126th Civil Engineer Squadron joined members from the 200th Red Horse Squadron and the Naval Mobile Construction Battalion ONE, commonly known as the Seabees, to continue construction on four Nu-Form buildings. Each building is over 10,000 square feet and is constructed by using a series of interlocking polymer based forms that are then filled with concrete. This building system has been put in use by the United States Air Force, Army, Navy and Marine Corps. Teams were able to complete assembly and installation of 119 roof trusses, which is enough to complete one building and 15 percent of a second building. Despite problems with a lack of materials, members of the 126th were able to fabricate a stockpile of materials that would be needed in the future and were able to complete various side projects during the trip. Heavy equipment operators and water and fuels systems maintenance personnel worked together to trench and install lines for water service. This created an opportunity for pavement and ground troops to use multiple pieces of heavy equipment. Water and fuel system maintenance workers installed a high density polyethylene water supply line, buried existing water lines, and reestablished the proper grade in order to improve the area surrounding the living quarters. The heating ventilation and cooling team assisted a local contractor with troubleshooting and repair of the system that served the junior enlisted quarters. They also performed preventative maintenance on the air conditioner to ensure reliable performance. The power production team serviced and repaired the on-site generators that provided 100 percent of the electricity on site to power tools and welders. The electrical shop developed a bill of material for the project that included all the change orders since the beginning of the project. The engineering assistants performed site surveys to reestablish proper grading and create a layout for the water pipeline. Operations troops maintained daily report logs and created a vehicle control plan, as well as maintained a status board. The team left Israel wth the satisfaction of a successful deployment for training.