Facility Excellence keeps bases clean

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Trevor Rhynes
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Every two weeks, Airmen from various groups on Ramstein participate in Facility Excellence. These Airmen pick up trash and complete additional duties asked of them.

"FE teams are made up of volunteers and those who are on additional duty to participate in cleaning Ramstein, Landstuhl, Vogelweh, Vogelweh housing and Kapaun," said Tech. Sgt. Joseph Voll, NCOIC of facility excellence. "Teams work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and cover the entire installation."

Airmen are augmented to fulfill FE requirements.

"Due to Ramstein's fast mission, units aren't able to take care of the areas around their buildings," said Voll. "Groups provide a certain percentage of their unit to my team to clean the base. If we didn't do this job, there would be quite a bit of trash on the installations."

Completing this duty gives members of the facility excellence team the opportunity to take a break from their normal responsibilities.

"This gives us the opportunity to get away from the same routine that comes with being in your squadron day in and day out," said Airman 1st Class Dallas Arceneaux, 1st Combat Communications Squadron tactical network operations technician. "We also get to meet people we may not normally have the chance to meet."

FE Airmen could also be called upon to fill other roles as well.

"Besides just picking up trash Airmen on FE take care of the grounds, so things like pulling weeds, taking care of trees, or any support the base needs can be augmented from me through my chain," said Voll.

For Arceneaux, completing his rotation of FE offers a sense of achievement.

"We're doing our part to keep the base clean," he said. "We spend a lot of time making sure it looks good, so it makes us feel better about being here."