Andersen Airman receives Bronze Star Published June 23, 2008 By Staff Sgt. Angelique Smythe 36th Wing Public Affairs ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Recently an Andersen Airman received a Bronze Star Medal for completing hundreds of critical missions throughout northern Iraq and enduring hundreds of rocket attacks and improvised explosive devices. Lt. Col. Pete Ridilla, 36th Civil Engineer Squadron commander, served as the commander of the 736th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron Detachment 6 at Logistics Support Area Anaconda, Iraq, from May through November 2004. Colonel Ridilla worked for the 512th Engineer Battalion of the Ohio Army National Guard which was assigned to the 420th Engineer Brigade as part of the Army Reserves. The unit contained 58 Airmen from Kadena AB, Japan, Eielson AFB, Alaska, and Nellis AFB, Nevada, who were deployed to Iraq for more than 200 days. Within six months, they covered 15,000 convoy miles on 52 off-base missions throughout Iraq and completed 350 jobs assigned to them by the Army - building schools, bridges, prison camps, hospitals, etc. "We did three civil military operations which included building a school for a village and upgrading the village's electrical distribution," said Colonel Ridilla. "We also assisted in building a water treatment plant where we dug 400 meters of a water line from the Tigress River up to the plant." The school was built to serve 600 children and the water distribution system was the village's first supply of clean water they'd ever had. The 736th ECES's job with the Army was not only to support LSA Anaconda but to support the local community and other forward operating bases as well. The team completed jobs at nine other FOBs as their area of responsibility included Baghdad North. "One of the major things the insurgents tried to do was blow up bridges on major thoroughfares," said Colonel Ridilla. "So we went out and repaired seven of those bridges throughout northern Iraq." The bridges they fixed were not only used by military members but served all who populated the area - more than 100,000 people - and supplied northern Iraq with supplies. The team also built a prison camp at one of the FOBs, which was used as a temporary interment facility for insurgents. They rebuilt two mortar locations where the counter battery team could fire back at insurgents. They built the theater's blood bank, where all extra frozen blood was stored. The blood bank supported both Iraq and Afghanistan. "We also completely rewired the joint special operations task force operations center," said Colonel Ridilla. "Before we arrived, someone had barbed it; it caught fire and shut down the whole operation. Our team went in and rewired the whole compound so the combined joint special operations task force operations center had better communications." These were only few of the jobs completed by the 736th ECES Detachment 6. During the deployment, the team also went through more than 300 mortar and rocket attacks, and they were hit by three improvised explosive devices. "One of them actually damaged one of our dump trucks which had two of our Airmen inside," said Colonel Ridilla. "No shrapnel went through the cab but both of them lost their hearing and one was cut by a flying glass. They both survived and went back to duty. One received a Purple Heart for the cuts received in the blast." Regardless of the obstacles faced during their deployment, the Airmen did not stop doing their jobs until it was time to leave. This group of 58 Airmen had one mission in mind - to make Iraq a better place. "I'm very proud of the deployment," said Colonel Ridilla. "We did life altering work...we did some awesome work."