FERL: Hands-on education

  • Published
  • By Amber Baillie
  • Air Force Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  Every nail Cadet 2nd Class William Kent hammers into the 900- square-foot modular house he has helped construct through the Academy's Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory, he angles with precision and care because he knows it will soon be someone's home.

Seventy-five cadets from the Academy, five from the Navy and four from West Point started their three-week FERL training on June 3 for the Civil Engineering 351 class. Construction of two Hogan homes for the Navajo community is one of their main projects.

"They start these houses from the ground up and by the time the three weeks are over they'll be completed and the houses will be transported to Gallup, New Mexico," said Capt. Lindsey Maddox, course director of the program. "They donate the homes to the Southwest Indian Foundation and their different chapters apply for them if they have a need for houses."

The first house built by the program was in 1998 and is still in use. Maddox said because cadets know families will live in the houses; they treat them as if they were their own when they build them.

"When I mess up, instead of trying to just fix it a little bit, I completely take out the nail and make sure it's right because someone is actually going to live in this house," Kent said.
This is the 19th year of the FERL program. It enables cadets to get hands-on engineering experience as they survey, drive equipment, pave roads, pour concrete, install sprinklers and work on wood-frame construction.

"If we didn't have this program, after we graduate we'd only have classroom experience," Kent said. "We need this experience so when we're officers, we really know what all of the enlisted do and all of their capabilities so we can be better officers."

Thirty-five active- duty Airmen and reservists came to the Academy this year to help mentor cadets in FERL activities.

"Cadets love working with the enlisted mentors because they have stories on what the Air Force is really like, it gives them a good idea on what an officer is expected to do and helps prep them to be a good lieutenant," Maddox said.

Cadets participate in the program the summer before their junior year. They work and live at the FERL site in Jacks Valley.

"The reason we do it that summer is because during their junior year, they start the bulk of their civil engineering majors," Maddox said. "By bringing them out here and letting them have fun hands-on experiences, when their instructor starts talking about it next semester, they can have a really good visual."

Maddox said they give cadets materials and say, "Go build it."

"They recently built concrete beams," Maddox said. "We gave them rebar and concrete and said, 'Build the strongest beam you think you can,' without them having any background knowledge on how to do it. They brainstormed with their team and came up with a plan. Next week they'll test their beams and see who is the strongest. That'll be the opportunity for the instructor to say, 'Here's why yours was so much stronger than yours.' That's where they work the theory into it."

Cadet 1st Class Mike Radosevich, cadet commander of FERL, said he thinks the program is essential to cadets.

"Civil engineering is such huge aspect of the Air Force," Radosevich said. "It's an academic class but it's also a lot of fun. They get to work with peers and faculty who they'll be working with during the school year as well as gain exposure to what needs to get done and what they will be leading as officers."

Last year a new deployed civil engineering activity was implemented. Maddox said it gives cadets hands-on experience with equipment and tools used in a deployed setting.
"We teach them how to run generators, set up tents, light carts and a mobile aircraft arresting strip," Maddox said. "It's great exposure."

Maddox said facilities at the site will be upgraded for next year.

"We have a very small shower and shave unit that's been around for ages, so we're going to build a new one," Maddox said. "We're going to incorporate a lot of green technology by installing a geothermal foundation to help cut down on energy costs, install solar panels and use different windows so the building can be a teaching point and an experiment in it itself."