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380AEW Article

Failure not an option: Maintaining 99% effectiveness

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Jacob Morgan
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  One of three KC-10 Extender engines is hoisted more than 40 ft. in the air and placed in the tail of the plane. The General Electric CF6-50C2 engine weighs approximately 9,000 pounds and requires significant manpower to move around.

Typical maintenance on this engine is done at U.S. bases, where units have large hangars and ample time to diagnose and fix a problem. However, with combat sorties to fly and a higher operations tempo overseas, members of the 380th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron KC-10 Extender Aircraft Maintenance Unit worked late into the night and early into the morning to remove and replace the engine on the flightline.

An engine replacement typically requires four specialties: hydraulics, electrical and environmental, crew chiefs and jet engine mechanics. However, six specialties, including communications navigation and guidance and control, were on hand to split open the tail of the aircraft, set up stands, hoists, disconnect the engine and reconnect a new one.

According to U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Mitch Johnson, 380th EAMXS KC-10 AMU superintendent, teamwork is what drives the unit to success.

"We maintain 99 percent effectiveness because our guys do not want the mission to slip. Even though everyone has their specialty and their own lane, everyone here is helping each other," said Johnson, who calls Thief River Falls, Minn., home and is deployed from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. "You'll find that maintainers hate to fail. Everyone here in this unit has a greater sense of belonging and a drive to work together."

This drive helps them keep the KC-10 Extenders operational while abiding by three rules: safety first, maintenance by-the-book, and taking the time to do things right the first time.

When an Extender lands, crew chiefs recover the aircraft and start the next round of maintenance. Crew chiefs are responsible for regular servicing of the aircraft to include pre and post-flight inspections, refueling, checking tires and brakes.

According to Johnson, crew chiefs are the "jack-of-all-trades and master of none, meaning they have knowledge on all of the systems, but they also have to know when to call in one of the five specialties for help.

If a problem is found during an inspection, crew chiefs will do some trouble shooting and narrow down the problem if possible. Sometimes, they can fix the problem or remove and replace a part, but when they cannot, they call in the specialist.

"These are old-school aircraft and it requires reading a book, trouble shooting, and start ruling out each component, each connector and finding the issue," said Johnson. "If it cannot be fixed here it's removed and replaced."

Most of the removing and replacing is done by the specialties, for instance, a jet engine mechanic would replace parts on the engines, or a hydraulic specialist would replace hydraulic lines and conduct function checks.

The squadron has less people and a higher operations tempo than a typical U.S. unit, but they are still required to keep the Extenders safe and reliable for operations, said Johnson. Every maintainer assigned to the 380th EAMXS KC-10 AMU is a fully qualified journeyman or craftsman. They know the steps for each scenario and using technical orders, can solve the problems quickly.

"My guys have the drive to generate aircraft for the highest of operations tempo," said Johnson. "Some things go beyond our capability and that's why we have the back-shops. We brought a lot of capability, but we rely on the fabrications flight, aerospace ground equipment and other shops to help us out. Without them, we wouldn't survive out here."

Once the unit starts the generation process for an aircraft, their turn-around has to be quick. The Extenders are expected to be ready to keep aircraft up in the air for a sustained period of time. For that to happen, members of the 380th EAMXS KC-10 AMU have to give the aircraft a green light to go.

"I need to make sure this 86 million dollar jet is good to go, its green, and it can refuel other aircraft to carry on their mission," said U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Richard Fails, 380th EAMXS KC-10 AMU crew chief. "It is a great sense of pride for us to be able to get our guys what they need."