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Ammo specialists support deployed missions

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Carolyn Viss
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Every time a bomber lands here with an empty weapons bay, one group of specialists gets some serious job satisfaction.
 
The 74 Airmen of the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron munitions flight are responsible for producing and maintaining all the munitions for the B-1 Lancers here and chaff and flares for the C-130s, C-17s, F-16s, and A-10s in Southwest Asia. 

"We have the United States Air Forces Central's biggest war reserve material stockpile," said Master Sgt. David Vanert, noncommissioned officer in charge of conventional maintenance, deployed from Ramstein Air Base, Germany. "We are responsible for building bombs from start to finish, and we have some of the hardest-working Airmen on base in this flight." 

That hard work has clearly paid off for the entire unit. 

"We have the highest weapons effectiveness rate in Southwest Asia, and other bases are actually looking at our processes and seeking to emulate what we do," Sergeant Venert said. 

Located in an austere part of the base, as far away as possible from most base assets, the shop produces bombs according to an air tasking order, determined by how many the bombers expend, said Senior Master Sgt. JC Riggs, munitions production section chief. He's been in the career field for 22 years and said the deployed mission is especially satisfying because he knows the bombs they build provide close air support for servicemembers on the ground who are directly in harm's way. 

"It's totally different from the home mission," he said. "The number of munitions we handle every day is much higher, and we're also working with live weapons." 

At times, that higher number of bombs that are built from a bunch of tail kits and fuses is also needed much more quickly in the desert, he said. 

"Sometimes we get a tasking from the munitions controllers who need a different variety of weapons based on a certain target set," Sergeant Venert said. "We will get the order in the late afternoon and have it completed by morning because we have guys working here around the clock." 

During this rotation, Sergeant Riggs, who is deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., said they've seen a lot of Air Force Smart Operations implemented as well. For instance, since October they've combined the component delivery and conventional maintenance flights into one, more streamlined system. 

"The line driver brings an empty trailer to the bomb dump, loads up, and gets all the parts to the munitions assembly conveyor," Sergeant Venert said. "Once the bombs are assembled, they're loaded back on the trailer and taken straight to the flightline for the weapons load crew to start putting in the bays. We can get somewhere around 48 bombs finished on one shift." 

The bombs that aren't used right away are taken to a storage pad here, and before they're used a crew chief performs a seven-level function check. 

"This is where attention to detail really pays off," he said. "We have to make sure every bomb that's dropped is going to be fully effective." 

Staff Sergeant Daniel Hodges, a conventional maintenance specialist also from Ellsworth, said building live bombs is exciting because out here they can see the direct impact on the Global War on Terror. 

"Last week, I read about the bombers that destroyed the al-Qaida torture compounds in Iraq," he said. "Knowing our flight built those made me really proud." 

That same pride echoes throughout the unit. 

"These guys and gals are dedicated," Sergeant Riggs said. "They have to be. If one person slacks, the whole team suffers." 

As senior NCOs, he and Sergeant Venert said they were "raised" by an extensive list of good chiefs and supervisors, and they try to give back as much of that knowledge as possible to the younger generation of Airmen. "I'm so proud of them," both men repeated. 

"Even working 12 hours a day, six days a week, sometimes outside in the heat, these Airmen do outstanding work," Sergeant Riggs said. "Their effectiveness is far-reaching, and I can't imagine a better, more professional group of people."