CFACC speaks to maintainers during 380th Air Expeditionary Wing visit

Published Aug. 17, 2012
By Tech. Sgt. Amanda Savannah
380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The U.S. Air Forces Central Command and Combined Forces Air Component Commander spoke to maintainers of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing during his visit here Aug. 15.

Lt. Gen. David Goldfein has been speaking to maintainers throughout forward-deployed bases about what he calls, "maintenance discipline." It is an expansion of a theme he emphasized to air operators in similar 2011 talks throughout the area of responsibility.

"Over the years I've had a number of squadron commanders who would tell me 'safety first'," the CFACC said. "As soon as I got done with that briefing I would walk out onto a line or someplace where it was just inherently unsafe. It never quite resonated with me. But what I have learned is that if we are disciplined in the way we do our business, we will inherently be safe."

Goldfein talked about the beginnings of flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., 103 years ago.

"For 103 years, man and machine have been taking to the air to defend our Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic," he said.

He talked about three role models who set the standard for the Air Force: Charlie Taylor, mechanic with the Wright Brothers; retired Chief Master Sgt. Thomas Barnes, the fourth chief master sergeant of the Air Force; and retired Lt. Gen. Leo Marquez, the U.S. Air Force Headquarters deputy chief of staff for logistics and engineering and designed the maintenance badge.

"I picked these three because there's a maintenance award associated with each of these names," Goldfein said. "This is indeed the shoulders we stand on when I talk about this business of disciplined maintenance."

Goldfein discussed the air support, supply airdrops, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sorties, and personnel recovery that would not happen without the Air Force and its maintainers. They must ensure maintenance discipline, he said.

"In this fight, when somebody calls for our support and our answer is ever, 'I can't get to you right now because I'm doing self-induced maintenance because of discipline break down,' we're doing the enemy's job for them," Goldfein said.

The general showed slides which included examples of good - and sometimes not so good - maintenance practices.

To prevent break downs in discipline, Goldfein said maintainers should remember proper documentation when following technical orders, ensure visible leadership is the standard when it comes to maintenance operations, and know their individual limits.

His examples of where maintenance discipline excelled included his personal story.

"I'm one of those pilots that don't have the same number of takeoffs and landings," Goldfein said. While flying an F-16, he had to eject from his aircraft inside enemy lines and was rescued less than two hours after he ejected.

"After I had taken a pretty good hit to the back part of that airplane, the aircraft flew and responded to every one of my control inputs as it came apart," he said. "It allowed me to glide to a point where I could get out and dump the airplane into an unpopulated area. When I pulled back on the stick, the airplane zoomed just like I needed it to, and when I pulled the handle, a hundred unrelated (steps) all occurred in about a matter of a second or two seconds. Any one of those things could have gone wrong."

Senior Airman Erinne Smith, 380th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron structural maintainer, is deployed here with the Louisiana Air National Guard and attended the general's briefing.

"I think it was really great to have him here today," said Smith, a New Orleans native. "I think it kind of reinforces what we do and reminds you how important it is. It was good to be able to hear that."

Goldfein also presided over the U.S. AFCENT Air Warfare Center change of command during his visit.

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