Military Conducts Survey at Airport 80D

By DIANNE ALWARD-BIERY

Cleaver Senior Staff Writer

HARRISON – Anyone noticing some folks in military camo strolling around during the week of June 9 at Clare County Airport 80D were likely curious as to what was afoot. When Hayes Township Trustee Rob McKay posed that question of Commissioner Gabe Ambrozaitis, Airport Committee chairperson, at the June 10 Hayes General Board meeting, he learned the men in question were members of the Michigan Army National Guard 107th Engineer Battalion out of Ishpeming.

It turns out that while their fellow Guard members were at Camp Grayling, the gentlemen seen at 80D were spending their summer Guard training week a bit differently this year. All branches of the U.S. military have construction divisions, and these particular folks had been sought out by Ambrozaitis to conduct a survey of the airport property as part of an Innovative Readiness Training. IRT is a Department of Defense program that enables Guard members to work on enduring projects which benefit communities while simultaneously creating joint training opportunities to increase deployment readiness. [learn more at irt.defense.gov]

Ambrozaitis said the Michigan Army National Guard has done multiple such projects in cooperation with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, and work at 80D was an opportunity to again stretch their experience.

The five Guardsmen – last names Jeannotte, Ketola, Andrews, Eapan and Karinen – had set up something of a command post in the airport terminal building, stocking it with all the necessary tools of the surveyor’s trade, as well as computer-supported schematics and aerial mapping.

The team took a few moments to describe their work at 80D, how it fit into the Michigan Army National Guard’s training plan, and to demonstrate how their surveying equipment is used.

Ambrozaitis explained that this survey is the first step in a program that would allow the Guardsmen to gain experience by evaluating all the necessary aspects needed to complete multiple projects at the airport. After creating a construction plan, those detailed design/project packets would then be sent to the DoD, where the proposed work would be considered – and hopefully approved – for completion by the Guard. That’s right – if the project is approved and the county commissioners are on board, the actual labor would be done by National Guard troops as part of their training program, and provided at no cost to the county, much as is done for the DNR. The county’s only financial obligation would be the cost of materials.

Ambrozaitis said he planned to present the IRT program information at the June 18 meeting of the Clare County Board of Commissioners.

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