Maintenance Recovery Teams go where needed to keep airlift mission on track

Published Nov. 18, 2010
By Staff Sgt. Stefanie Torres
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Staff Sgt. Blaine Campbell had been in country just 48 hours when he received a knock on the door of his quarters around midnight. Within 45 minutes, he was in uniform, a weapon in hand and on a plane to Iraq.

Such rapid response is exactly what the mission requires for Airmen assigned to the 386th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Recovery Team, a tight-knit group of aviation mechanics who deploy wherever they're needed to fix grounded aircraft.

"I just arrived on base two days before and had barely unpacked when I was literally told to pack my things again, because I had a mission," recalled Sergeant Campbell, an aerospace propulsion craftsman deployed to an undisclosed air base here from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. "But that's what we do. We recover aircraft so they can get back on the road, complete the mission and get back home."

When an aircraft breaks while flying off-station, appropriate maintenance personnel may not always be available at the remote site, Sergeant Campbell explained. In such cases, a recovery team is dispatched with the parts and expertise to perform the necessary repairs.

The number of Airmen assigned to each recovery mission depends on the type of failure, explained Staff Sgt. Maura Dennehy, a C-130 repair and reclamation craftsman who also is deployed here from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. For her and Sergeant Campbell, the missions can sometimes get a little complicated.

Sergeant Dennehy recalled one C-130, assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, that began experiencing brake problems during a routine mission in Iraq. Sergeant Dennehy was selected to fly to the location, fix the problem and come back home. But as the aircraft was ready to go wheels up, something else went wrong. The pilot had to make an emergency stop because the engines weren't generating enough power.

The most qualified engine troop at the time was still at the 386th AEW -- and that's when Sergeant Campbell received the knock on his door.

"In less than an hour, I was on a plane will all my gear and the one part I needed," he said. "The engine wasn't doing what it was supposed to, but it actually was a problem with flow of fuel. The way the team handled the situation was a great example of how it should really go in the maintenance world -- and it usually does."

Sergeant Dennehy noted that everybody on the troubled aircraft, including the crew chief, worked with the recovery technicians to diagnose and fix the problem.

"We all knew what we were doing to get the aircraft fixed, but we took it one step at a time, and we all worked very well with each other," she said. "I think that was the most important part."

Sergeant Campbell agreed.

"This was a real team effort, which just goes to show it's not about one person and what that person can do," he said. "It's about everybody working together as a team, getting the aircraft on the road so the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing can do what we do every day: Get boots on the ground."