Combat metals keeps aircraft flying in AOR

Published Aug. 19, 2010
By Staff Sgt. Stefanie Torres
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Cutting a piece of metal down to one one-thousandth of an inch - one third the size of a human hair -- takes precision and years of practice to get right.

But for the 386th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron's Combat Metals Flight, accuracy is all in a day's work. Airmen assigned to this unit can repair or create just about any aircraft component from scratch, keeping C-130s and other transport planes in the air throughout the U.S. Central Command area of operations by welding, cutting, bending, and shaping replacement parts from a single block or sheet of metal.

At home station, the unit is called a fabrication flight. Here, two metals career fields have efficiently combined to form what is known as combat metals.

"Aircraft metals technologists manipulate thicker portions of metal into fine-tuned parts, and sheet metal technicians work with thinner pieces of metal like the outer skin of the aircraft," explained Staff Sgt. Brandon Coleman, a 386th EMXS aircraft metals technologist who is deployed here from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.

As the responsible drawdown of forces in Iraq continues and mission requirements in Afghanistan have picked up, combat metals is answering the need for fabrication beyond their home at the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, creating essential aircraft components in as little time as possible for units throughout the AOR. Their span of work can even include components for U.S. Army aircraft at bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Tech. Sgt. Kevin Nolan, the 386th EMXS's non-commissioned officer in charge of combat metals.

"The speed and precision that these guys can work is amazing," said Sergeant Nolan, who is deployed from Aviano Air Base, Italy. "We are making parts for the 386th AEW and have backfilled the same need for Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. The shop has also created C-12 parts for the Army."

Depending on the type of work, a part can take up to a couple of days to finish, but that's still much faster than it would take for the part to be shipped from the United States, he said.

"Most of what we make here you can't get through the Air Force supply system," Sergeant Nolan said. "That is usually the case if they are asking us to make it. Or, we make or repair a part so that we don't have to wait two or three weeks for it to come out here."
Staying ahead of the game is important in their line of work because mission-critical equipment requires fast fixes.

A fire truck recently needed immediate repairs here to ensure that emergency-response capabilities were maintained on the flight line. The metals shop responded by welding and shaping the exact piece needed for a temporary fix while the permanent part was en route.

"We hook up everybody with mission-essential stuff as much as we can," Sergeant Nolan said. "The fire truck repair fell into our lap, but these guys did exactly what they needed to."

The shop here is unique because it lacks the kind of computer-controlled milling gear available to similar operations at permanent-party bases, Sergeant Coleman said. Instead, machine operators must control the fabrication equipment manually, a far more challenging task.

"Back home, our two main machines, a mill and lathe, are equipped with computer technology that will cut metal pieces precisely where they need to be cut, but we don't have that here," he said. "A lot of labor goes into the setup up of every cut of every part. We will put the block of metal into one of the machines, and we will machine it left, right, forward, back, up and down on every X-Y-Z axis."

That kind of skill and precisions requires tremendously dedicated Airmen, but his troops are up to the challenge, Sergeant Nolan said.

"For nine guys to put out this many jobs and have this big of an impact, and for people to actually notice, doesn't happen a lot," he said. "I come in and say this is what we have to do, and they do it. They make my job easy."