ORICK, Calif. – Pennsylvania Air National Guardsmen partnered with the National Park Service through the Department of War’s Innovative Readiness Training program this summer to complete construction projects throughout Redwood National and State Parks while strengthening expeditionary engineering skills in a real-world environment.
Airmen assigned to the 201st Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineer, or RED HORSE, 193rd Special Operations Wing and 111th Attack Wing, Pennsylvania Air National Guard, worked on the projects that will provide lasting benefits with other military units, government agencies and native groups.
“The purpose of the Innovative Readiness Training program is to train Guard and Reserve units in their wartime mission-critical skills while directly benefiting American communities,” said U.S. Army Reserve Col. Stephen Rubright, deputy director of Innovative Readiness Training, Department of War.
More than 2.5 million visitors travel to Redwood National and State Parks each year to experience one of America’s most iconic landscapes, with redwoods stretching more than 350 feet into the sky, waves crashing along Northern California’s rugged coastline and elk roaming the open meadows. They don’t usually see the work required to keep it that way.
These projects span several locations throughout the park and include transforming a former fish hatchery into a community education center, installing culverts to improve roadway drainage, renovating volunteer housing and repairing facilities at the park’s visitor center. Each project preserves the park’s history for future generations.
While the projects directly benefit the park, the environment itself provides realistic training conditions that challenge Airmen to adapt, solve problems and operate in circumstances similar to those they could encounter during future deployments.
“The RED HORSE mission is to deploy Airmen downrange and conduct construction in austere environments,” said Capt. Colin McNoldy, civil engineering officer in charge of the 201st RED HORSE Innovative Readiness Training project. “The settings we're operating in at Redwood National and State Parks may mimic the situations our Airmen could face, from living conditions and limited connectivity to organizing logistics between remote work sites.”
McNoldy emphasized the importance of Airmen learning to overcome challenges and become more experienced in their craft.
“The challenges teach them how to rely on one another, making this invaluable readiness training,” McNoldy said.
“My supervisors and everyone above me have stepped aside to let us younger Airmen get after it,” said Airman 1st Class Henry Benzin, a structures craftsman assigned to the 201st RED HORSE. “We make mistakes, and they let us figure out how to solve them.”
One of the most rewarding aspects of the mission has been working alongside fellow Airmen while completing projects that will benefit the park long after the training concludes, Benzin said.
“I'm most proud of all of our work – the 201st, the detachment and everything we’re doing here,” Benzin said.
For many junior Airmen, the mission provides opportunities that cannot be replicated during routine training exercises. The chance to learn from their mistakes and build real-world skills prepares them for future deployments in fast-paced combat situations.
“I see it as a good opportunity to improve my skills, learn teamwork and get ready for when we need to deploy,” said Airman 1st Class Drissa Drame-Toure, a water and fuel systems maintenance apprentice assigned to the 201st RED HORSE.
For the National Park Service, the partnership provides critical infrastructure improvements that might otherwise take significantly longer to complete while strengthening relationships between the military and local communities.
“The mission of the National Park Service is to preserve and protect the landscape and historic structures for future generations,” said Patrick Pollard, facilities manager for Redwood National and State Parks.
“It’s been an incredible experience. The RED HORSE groups, specifically, come with a tremendous amount of experience and are highly competent in many different areas,” Pollard said. “They come into the park, and any project we ask them to help us with, they’ve been able to hit the ground running.”
For the 201st RED HORSE Airmen, the mission extended beyond construction. It strengthened military readiness while helping preserve one of America’s most treasured and most visited national landscapes, demonstrating that behind the beauty of the redwoods is the work of those committed to protecting them.