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Maintainers say hello, goodbye to multiple missions each day

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carolyn Viss
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan --  Turning wrenches, getting greasy, and suffering through extreme temperatures on the flight line is all in a day's work for C-17 Globemaster III maintainers at the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan.

But even with a 40 percent increase in operations to accommodate a recent surge in Afghanistan, 376th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Airmen are getting the job done.

"The primary mission of the C-17 here is transporting personnel and cargo downrange," said Airman 1st Class Manny Jacoby, a crew chief deployed from Dover Air Force Base, Del. "Most of the time when the aircraft arrives or leaves, there are about 150 passengers on board, and we send out two to three missions per day either going downrange or on their way back."

As a crew chief, he does everything from filling it up with gas and inspecting it before it takes off to catching it when it lands.

"I am generally the first person who sees it," he said. "If we find a problem, then I get the appropriate specialty out here to work on that issue."

One such specialist is Staff Sgt. Stephanie Masterson, deployed to the Transit Center as an aerospace propulsion specialist from Dover AFB, Del., who works specifically on the engines.

"I mainly inspect the aircraft engines to make sure there's nothing wrong with the blades or the engine itself. We fix them ... and keep them running," she said.

Whatever's wrong gets fixed in a timely manner.

"We've turned over aircraft in one and a half hours, but if we have to do a full inspection it takes about three hours," she said.

And before they know it, that plane is leaving and the next plane is arriving.

"When the plane comes down, the pilot will tell us if there's something broken on it," Airman Jacoby said. "We try to get it fixed before the next mission, and that's the time-limited part. Sometimes we're still working or trying to figure out what's wrong when the crew comes out for the next mission."

As a crew chief, he has to be at least decently familiar with every single system on the air frame.

"Ideally, I should be able to troubleshoot down to whatever the actual problem is, and then call in a specialist in that particular area to finish the work," he said, adding that intimate knowledge of every single system on the plane is both the most challenging and the best part of the job.

"I enjoy knowing something about everything and being a jack of all trades," he said.
Like every career field, C-17 maintainers have their good days and their bad days.

"A typical day varies a little, depending on what's broken and what's not," he said. "Every day, I see the Marines and Army come through, either going home or going downrange. It's a neat feeling because we're not actually downrange; but, being here, and knowing about stuff going on down there, you know you're sending the people there to make it happen."

Sergeant Masterson, who joined nearly 10 years ago, has seen almost everything there is to see on a C-17 engine ... and every kind of weather, too.

"I've experienced freezing fog, rain, snow, and - right now - heat and bugs," said the resilient and energetic Airman.

And although it's also far busier here than it ever is stateside, both Airmen agreed they feel good at the end of the day.

This is Airman Jacoby's second deployment in his two and a half years in the Air Force, but he likes this location the best, he said.

"I love the country here! It's beautiful. The people are very friendly. Personally, I am grateful that we are allowed to have a base (here)," he said.

Sergeant Masterson agreed.

"I feel good, I feel like I'm contributing to something more than just a training mission," she said. "I like that it's challenging. It's something different than what a lot of people I went to school with do. I could do anything else in the AF, but I like this job."