“Groundpower” means “Airpower”: AGE powers the fight from below

Published July 10, 2011
By Story by Senior Airman Eric Summers Jr.
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- As aircraft take off and land, one organization helps ensure the aircraft get off the ground without interruption.

The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron Aerospace Ground Equipment flight makes it possible for maintainers to repair aircraft safely and return them to the fight downrange.

"Obviously, there is a great deal of maintenance between sorties," said Senior Master Sgt. Marvin Massey, 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron AGE flight chief.

"What we do at AGE is duplicate aircraft systems while on the ground -- cooling, electrical power generation and hydraulics -- without running the actual engines on the plane," Massey said. "This is important for safety because it gives us control to only run the necessary systems for troubleshooting and maintenance while saving money and fuel by not having to run the engines."

The AGE flight also provides maintenance stands, electricity, equipment used to load munitions and nitrogen, and lights to directly support various aircraft to include the B-1 Lancer, C-130J Hercules, KC-135 Stratotanker, E-8C Joint Stars, C-17 Globemaster III and transient aircraft.

Being deployed to the desert, where temperatures are extreme and can peak to more than 130 degrees, bears down on Airmen, aircraft and equipment.

The AGE shop is responsible for maintaining more than 650 pieces of equipment, used on an average of 2,000 service dispatches a week. With the average age of the equipment at 25 years, inspections and maintenance are key to the mission

"All the equipment is scheduled for inspection. We change fluids and ensure it works to get it back on the flightline," said Staff Sgt. Jeremy Apisa, AGE inspection and repair journeyman. "The weather definitely plays a big part, and sand can clog the engines if an inspection is missed," Apisa said. "Compared to my home base, we do about a year's worth [of work] here in six weeks."

As well as working in harsh desert conditions the flight also adapts to new situations.

"Through formal training we only learn about 30 types of equipment. Here we work on about 97 that can be specific to certain aircraft," Apisa said. "For the Airmen it's a hands-on experience. They learn as they go with on-the-job training."

Each day in this dynamic deployed environment presents new challenges which give AGE Airmen the opportunity to learn and excel.

"It's rewarding to see the young Airmen who really have no type of mechanical background come in and start picking it up a piece at a time and build on that," Massey said.

"It all comes back to the amount of maintenance and ground power needed to get [aircraft] up for the next mission," Massey said. "They're individual pieces of equipment but when you put it all together we touch every type of aircraft out here. There is no airpower without groundpower."