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Life support, survival equipment to merge

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Cassandra Locke
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  The 379th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron's Aircrew Life Support team and 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron's Survival Equipment are merging into one.
The new team will be called Combined Air Crew Flight Equipment. 

"Alignment of all these functions under the 379th EOSS will allow a more functional, effective and efficient Aircrew Flight Equipment Program," said Senior Master Sgt. Stewart Stangl, 379th EOSS. 

Life support provides the aircrew safe and effective systems and programs to protect and sustain human life during flight operations. According to Sergeant Stangl, they prepare aircrew and passengers to survive, affect their rescue and return to duty if forced to abandon their aircraft during an emergency. 

Survival Equipment inspects, repairs, manufactures, packs and re-packs fabric, canvas, leather, survival equipment, rubber products, recovery and drogue parachute systems for personnel and aircraft, as well as flotation equipment, protective equipment, emergency evacuation systems and associated subsystems. 

"The merger is aimed at eliminating redundant tasks, training and support," said Sergeant Stangl. 

Career field mergers are being directed with the goal of decreasing down to 100 career fields within the Air Force. 

"It's a good thing for both career fields. There will be growing pains and a significant amount of additional training, but career progression and professional development will accelerate," said Sergeant Stangl. 

He said better promotion opportunities will be the biggest individual benefit due to career field expansion. 

One of the biggest improvements will be the ability to perform any inspection and maintenance action on a specific piece of flight equipment. 

The sergeant said Aircrew Life Support was performing a 30-day inspection on the B-1 Bombers Advanced Concept Ejection seats and noticed a problem with the Universal Water Activated Release System. Normally, they would have to seek out a Survival 
Equipment specialist to make the repair. When the merger takes place, the aircrew flight equipment technician will be able to perform all actions on the spot - one example of efficient and effective processes. 

Aircrew Life Support is supporting seven different weapons system with significantly different types of flight equipment and large numbers of aircrew supported. 

"We are the largest most diverse ALS program in the AOR. Keeping flight equipment serviceable is a huge challenge coupled with the high ops tempo and harsh climatic conditions," said Sergeant Stangl. 

When Survival Equipment supports a specific airframe they must be able to inspect and repack almost every piece of equipment within the Air Force's inventory. 

"They support not just the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, but are the main survival equipment repair hub in the AOR," said Sergeant Stangl. They routinely inspect equipment from all over the AOR, but have also supported the Iraqi Air Force. 

"For the most part the transition will be seamless. Maintenance has obviously lost a section so they will be the most affected by the change. It puts both the back shop (survival equipment) and front line provider (life support) under centralized control and a single commander," said Sergeant Stangl. 

The merger is expected to be completed in October.