Vinnell Brown, Root: Taking care of Incirlik Airmen

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Rose Richeson
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Take the military population at Incirlik and double it. That's about what we are provided with when you add Vinell Brown, Root - a joint venture between Northrop Grumman Technical Services and Kellogg, Brown and Root - to the active duty U.S. Air Force stationed here.

Instead of completing the daily mission with about 1,500 people Incirlik is afforded close to 2,500 if you count the mission-essential VBR employees.

"We take the place of active duty personnel," said Michael Flynn, Vinnell Brown and Root program manager. "We have approximately 1,100 Turkish nationals and 86 Americans doing many of the same jobs U.S. military members are doing. For example, VBR is doing most of the civil engineer duties here."

Lt. Col. Scott Warner, 39th Civil Engineer Squadron commander agrees that VBR is a crucial piece of the civil engineering machine here.

"VBR provides the muscle and a large portion of the brainpower for the majority of the civil engineering mission," Colonel Warner said, "and they do it seamlessly. They are so integrated into the base, into the wing, and into the squadron that it is difficult to tell where the military ends and VBR begins."

While VBR employees perform the bulk of the 39th CES work here, there are other areas on base where VBR contracted members make life at the "Lik" easier on Airmen.

"We are almost everywhere the Airmen are," said Mr. Flynn. "We repair the roads they drive on, we maintain the BX and Commissary they shop in, we coordinate the Turkish Blue Books they need to stay in country, we operate the power plant, sewage facility and water works. We do everything but help them call home and secure the base."

One of the more obvious places Airmen might see VBR support is at the dining facility where all the servers, cooks and kitchen staff are employed by VBR.

"They play a vital part in running the dining facility which was recently named best in USAFE for the second year in a row," said Ronald Rasor, 39th Services Squadron dining facility manager. "They are an extraordinary team and the facility couldn't run smoothly without them."

Where would Incirlik golfers be without VBR employees maintaining the greens, reminded Mr. Flynn, who manages the multi-million dollar per year Incirlik project, which includes Geographically Separated Units at Izmir and Ankara.

The majority of that multi-million dollar project is comprised of duties within the 39th CES. VBR employees are responsible for all the base infrastructure, design, budgets, construction, aircraft arresting barriers and runway pavement just to name a few jobs.

They are also in charge of all the base plumbing, environmental security and interior/exterior electrical duties. One of the most important areas VBR operates is the fire department, which is made up of nothing but VBR employees.

While VBR has held Incirlik's contract since 1988, some of its employees have worked here since the 1970s and are well versed on base operations and American standards.
"We are ready for any project the base may have for us," said Mr. Flynn. "For example, when the cargo hub stood up, we were already working closely with contracting