Holloman Saves Air Force Dollars Published May 20, 2008 By Airman 1st Class John D. Strong II 49th Fighter Wing Public Affairs HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- With the state of the art F-22A Raptor set to arrive here June 2, the 49th Maintenance Group is busy fixing and preparing Holloman facilities to take on the task. "ACC gave a lot of money towards fixing our facilities out in the west area for the F-22 arrival, but some of the contracts were short," said Master Sgt. Kenneth Allen of the 49th Maintenance Operations Squadron. With some of the contracts being short the West Area Revitalization team or W.A.R party was born. The W.A.R party started out as seven Airmen back in February and will continue working until the end of the fiscal year. "We picked up what the contractors didn't do which was remodeling, roof repair, painting and plumbing" Sergeant Allen said. There are now 48 members of the West Area Revitalization team; 44 Maintenance group personnel and four 49th Civil Engineer Squadron civilian roofers. The Maintenance Airman are from various shops consisting of: Aerospace and Ground Equipment, Crew Chiefs, Metal Technicians and SPECS. So far the W.A.R party has saved the Air Force a total of $572,000 and at a rate of $20,000 a day. The mass amount of money saved is from the hard work and numerous hours the W.A.R party has clocked in and that's more than 10,000 man hours to date said Sergeant Allen. While most of the Airmen in the W.A.R party have no construction plumbing, roofing or painting backgrounds, some of the airmen do. "Before I enlisted in the Air Force I worked construction in Hawaii. It feels good to know that my past employment is helping Holloman's future and the mission," said Airman 1st Class Luis Lopez of the 49th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. "We are doing great and making huge progress its hard work but someone has to do it said Sergeant Allen about the W.A.R party. "We have learned a lot and we have gotten a lot of support from the Civil Engineer Squadron." "We are gearing up to be a stellar F-22A base and we want our facilities we work out of to reflect that." said Sergeant Allen.