PHOTO COURTESY OF USACE AFGHANISTAN DISTRICT

TRANSATL ANTIC DIVISION

its components but plays a valuable role in work critical to the national defense strategies of allied nation partners. Additionally, the district is home to several specialized capabilities including: the Aircraft Hangar Fire Protection Technical Center of Expertise, Center of Standardization for Nonpermanent Facilities (COS), the USACE Contingency Deployment Center (UCDC), and an Army Facilities Component Systems (AFCS) branch. These capabilities are available not only to the DOD but also to allied partners, non-governmental organizations, and other government agencies that might have a need for their expertise. The Aircraft Hangar Fire Protection Center of Expertise provides gold-standard advice on fire suppression systems, testing, and inspection used in aircraft hangars, where a single fire can cause damage in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The COS can provide off-the-shelf designs to meet virtually any facilities requirement from barracks to medical facilities to hardened operations centers (Hardened refers to a facility being designed and constructed to withstand direct or indirect fire. The significance of operations centers or any facility is that it makes them less vulnerable to disruption by enemy forces). Utilizing the COS can save customers valuable time and construction costs on facilities that can last up to 30 years. According to its website, the UCDC provides “soup to nuts” support for USACE personnel deploying for contingency operations. This includes screening resumes and hiring, conducting medical screenings, and other pre-deployment processing as well as administrative actions while deployed and all post-deployment actions, ensuring those who deploy with USACE are taken care of at every step in the process.

Project handover ceremony for the completion of the Comp Shahin Substation and base connection.

The AFCS branch, one of only four in the DOD, has design agents who work underneath the Engineering Research and Development Center’s Construction Engineering Research Laboratory. The AFCS program helps TAD support combatant commands and the Army service component commands by providing them with theater construction planning and designs. As TAD’s enduring district, TAM’s role in national defense and its stable presence in the region make it indispensable to USACE’s ability to provide frontline support to the warfighter. “One of the things I’m most proud of is our history,” said TAM Commander Col. Philip Secrist. “We’ve been around for almost 70 years. In many cases, our stakeholders can choose whether or not to utilize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for their projects, and we wouldn’t exist if they didn’t choose us time and again. We are not always the cheapest option, and we’re up front about that. But we are the best value option and bring with us the expertise and reputation of the entire U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” The Transatlantic Afghanistan District is a contingency district that has existed since 2004. It supports operations Resolute Support and Freedom’s Sentinel by accomplishing construction for U.S. Forces Afghanistan Combined Security Transition Command and for the departments of Defense and State. TAA provides engineering solutions and expertise in support of U.S. efforts to help build a stronger Afghanistan. Roughly 125 members in 115