For flightline ops, things get better with AGE

Published Oct. 30, 2008
By Staff Sgt. Vincent Borden
386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Tech. Sgt. Paul Slattery has developed an affinity for seeing things work correctly. As an Aerospace Ground Equipment craftsman and noncommissioned officer in charge of his shift, he gets an opportunity to watch the interwoven operability of flightline operations between crew chiefs, structural maintenance and others every day.

The equipment he maintains, some 220 pieces comprised of powered and non-powered pieces, are the lifeline of their work.

Sergeant Slattery has worked on those pieces for 16 years, learning the details of their electrical systems and weaknesses in design. Without his expertise and eight others that work with him in support of aircraft operations for Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, the daily operations tempo of U.S. Central Command's premier airlift wing would slow to a grinding halt.

Nobody wants that; not the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing commander or the commanders in the AOR that depend on the wing's airlift capability to get much needed supplies and resources. And it would be especially difficult for Sergeant Slattery, whose efforts have aided in the sortie missions of the U-2, C-17 Globemaster and C-130 Hercules in duty assignments and deployments throughout his career.

"I find there's a lot of job satisfaction in it," Sergeant Slattery said about performing maintenance on equipment. "That unit came in broke, you fixed it, and now it's good to go.

"You have days where you come in, and you leave after 12 hours, and it really draws on you," the sergeant said. "When you don't fix something, when you don't make something happen, you almost start to crave that job satisfaction."

Tech. Sgt. James Templeton, the AGE flight chief, has harnessed that sort of drive in his mechanics and channeled it into an effective and impressive metric. The shop operates at a 98 percent in-commission rate, something almost unheard of for deployed AGE shops in the U.S. CENTCOM area of responsibility.

To accomplish this, the AGE shop engages in a slew of maintenance activities. The shop performs regular inspections on its equipment; a 6-month inspection, which covers the basics for operation of the unit, and a yearly inspection, which is an in-depth look at contributing parts and pieces that add to the longevity of the equipment as a whole.

The range of types of equipment, though grouped in two basic categories of powered and non-powered AGE, is across a spectrum of different functions. The AGE mechanic's proficiency in each of them makes them true to life "jacks of all trades."

For instance, there's the MA-3D air conditioner, which is designed to cool aircraft cabins and interiors, and is an integral part of aircraft prepping in the hot climate of the Persian Gulf region. There's the Fl-1D, a portable floodlight which provides 100,000 lumens of light to aid in nighttime maintenance and operations. And there's the -86 diesel generator, which supplies 115 volts of electrical power to aircraft as crew chiefs and specialists perform their various diagnostic checks on the aircraft.

Airman 1st Class Anthony Morgan, an AGE mechanic deployed here from Ramstein Air Base, Germany, said that because of that range, he can help out stranded travelers with vehicles broken down on the side of the road with "no problems."

That reputation follows the mechanics wherever they go.

"AGE gets the rep that they can fix just about anything," said Sergeant Templeton, who has been deployed three times in the last four years. "So if there's something sitting somewhere else that nobody knows how to work on, they'll call AGE and ask 'Can you fix this?'
"Nine times out of ten we can, and it could be something we've never worked on," Sergeant Templeton said. "If we work on it long enough we can usually repair it."

Sometimes, maintenance actions do take a while. Sergeant Slattery said attachments are formed with those pieces of equipment because of the challenge they present.

"You have certain units that you dread to see come in, and certain units that you like," said Sergeant Slattery, a native of West Hartford, Conn., deployed from McChord Air Force Base, Wash. "Some units come in with the mystery problems, the little gremlins inside that plague you all the time. You don't want to see them, but it becomes a challenge. You want to fix them, and you want to fix them right."

The 'do it all' mechanics are tested daily; working maintenance issues here presents numerous challenges. All of the equipment is important, and the AGE shop does what it can to keep it operating efficiently.

"During the summertime [AGE] has performed three engine changes on three or four generators," said Master Sgt. James Templeton. "The summertime is really hard on the engines here.

"We've found a lot of the radiators clogged up with sand whenever we get a dust storm," said the sergeant, who is deployed from Dyess AFB, Texas. "If we don't catch it in time, the units might overheat."

Sergeant Templeton said the AGE shop has had to increase inspections on their fleet of equipment, performing 30-day washes of all the equipment in order to combat the problems sand causes to their electronic and mechanical systems.

The increased maintenance means a limited amount of man hours are available for the dispatch of equipment, which amounts to 800 deliveries a month, on average. The AGE shop's various customers, which include Transient Alert, C-130 and C-17 maintainers, and the Japan Air Self Defense Force and Republic of Korea Air Force, utilize AGE equipment enough that they require 24-hour AGE dispatch support for fueling and maintenance issues.

To combat the limitations, the workcenter devised a system of making non-powered AGE available for self service for various maintainers on the flightline.

"We've got flags in the forms bags," said Sergeant Templeton. "If they break something, all they have to do is pull the flag out and we'll come pick it up and bring it to the shop."

The self-service system, which works in tandem with the sweat of the mechanics maintenance actions, keep aircraft moving off and on the flightline. Sergeant Templeton said that seeing those aircraft complete their missions is a testament to what his shop does, day in and day out.

"We saw a C-130 come in last week unloading some human remains," said Sergeant Templeton. "When you see wounded soldiers come off an aircraft, and your equipment is hooked up to that aircraft cooling it down or powering it up, then the satisfaction is there. That's when it kicks in that everything we're doing here makes a difference in what's going on in the [War on Terror]."