Reservist finds source of base power outage

  • Published
  • By 477th Fighter Group Public Affairs
  • 477th Fighter Group
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Areas on base Sunday experienced a power outage that included the 477th Fighter Group Headquarters during the unit's monthly Unit Training Assembly weekend.

Instead of sitting around waiting for the power to be restored Tech. Sgt. John Orzechowski, 477th Civil Engineer Squadron, took action to find the problem.

"I headed over to the Shoppette and saw that they were out of power also," said Sergeant Orzechowski. "So I continued to follow the power lines out toward the CATM and I noticed a fuse cutout was blown on the power pole. I called the Fire Station and they notified JBER CE."

Sergeant Orzechowski, a former active duty electrician with the 773rd CES, saved the standby JBER electricians a lot of time. Otherwise they would have had to follow all of the power lines on base to find the blown fuse.

"He still has that true initiative to take it upon himself to roll the lines," said Jimmie Denton, Electrical Systems Supervisor, 773rd Civil Engineer Squadron.

"We were at a work stoppage without power," said Master Sgt. Kanya Briner, 477th Fighter Group, Knowledge Operations supervisor. "For the Reserves this is a big deal. Approximately 100 personnel are Traditional Reservists, which means they are only at work for one weekend a month. There are a lot of things that need to get done in those short two days."

Areas affected by the power outage were 57 officer houses, 7 lodging buildings, and 28 industrial facilities. The areas without power included important buildings that have mission critical requirements for electricity. A few of the buildings affected were: Mt. Spurr Elementary School, the Child Development Center, AAFES Shopette, the National Guard complex and the 477th Fighter Group headquarters and CES building.

There was a 12,470 volt power line with a blown fuse cutout on a transformer block, said Denton. With Orzechowski's help they were able to go directly to the problem area, fix it and have the power back on in three hours.

"Sergeant Orzechowski made a great find and enabled the unit to finish the training weekend," said Lt. Col. Mike Forcht, 477th CES commander. "We also appreciate the timely response from the JBER CE folks. This only re-emphasizes the great relationship the Reserve and active duty have on base."