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Fabrications Flight takes pride in performing jobs big, small

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Jack Sanders
  • 451st Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan --  The Airmen of the 451st Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron fabrications flight demonstrate pride in their work daily as they perform tasks big and small to provide a persistent airpower presence in Afghanistan.

Although they may be broken down into different sections, the fabrications flight works as a team to accomplish whatever task is thrown at them, said Master Sgt. Steven Joyce, 451st Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron fabrications flight chief, who is deployed from Hollomon Air Force Base, N.M. That teamwork and co-location has been essential in educating the Airmen on the different specialties within the fabrication flight.

"At home station everything's all spread out in different locations and here we're all together," the Baltimore native said. "For me I'm still learning because my actual background is the NDI (nondestructive inspection) side. So, I'm getting a chance to do a lot of hands on work with sheet metal and the machine shop. They've been teaching me a lot of stuff since I've been here."

Learning the job can prove to be a difficult task at home station let alone in a combat environment, but Joyce said he and the rest of the fabrications airmen are up for the task.

"I have very quality folks here," he said. "Everyone has a lot of pride in what they do."

The fabrications flight is all about pride that can be seen in their work, because even the smallest jobs can have a large impact.

"Probably our most common job is stuck screws," Joyce said. "They don't take a lot of time, but they are common and they're critical. We've had a few jobs where the aircraft was just about to fly and we had to go out because of a stuck screw. Even though it's a small job, sometimes it does have a huge importance on the ATO mission."

Although the small jobs are important to the fabrications flight their larger jobs are always on their mind too, Joyce said.

"Machine shops very intricate as far as they do locally manufactured parts for like an MRAP, so it just varies," Joyce said. "They do stuff for aircraft. They do stuff for vehicles. Different parts may come in here at any time."

Even though each section produces different parts, and touches on different aspects of the mission, some jobs require the entire flight to solve and repair.

"We're working on a possible weight for a bomb loader. We have a bomb loader that requires an NDI inspection," Joyce said. "So, what happens is the bomb loader comes in, then NDI inspects it and if there's a crack then sheet metal or machine shop, depending on what type of crack it is, one of those two shops will be the repair shop for it. Whether it needs to be welded, or whether it needs to be fabricated from sheet metal to beef it up or to strengthen it. That's where we all tie together as a flight."

No matter the job, the fabrications flight at KAF is up to the challenge, Joyce said.

"I'm just honored to be here," Joyce said. "For me, I've just been able to learn so much. I've earned a different level of respect for the different career fields, even though I've been assigned to the fabrications flight my whole career. You don't have that appreciation until you're in this kind of position to really get hands on and see and to understand how it all ties together."