Rock Solid Warrior Published June 19, 2007 386th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Staff Sgt. Jonathan Croskey Staff Sgt. Jonathan Croskey 386th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron Aircraft Metal Technician/ Lead Metals Technician Home unit/base: 43 Maintenance Squadron, Pope Air Force Base, N. C. How do you support the mission here? I provide flight line support in the removal of stuck or seized hardware, perform engine mount cone inspections, provide precision measurement capabilities of close tolerance components, and perform fabrication and welding processes on multiple pieces of aerospace ground equipment. I am also the unit safety representative for the squadron. How many times have you deployed and what makes this one unique? This is my first deployment, which makes it unique. Since this is the first it will be what future deployments are based off of. How does your job differ in a deployed environment vs. home base? Here we are limited in our capabilities due to the lack of equipment, an issue we are working on as we speak. There have been occasions where we have had to call another deployed location, or even send an aircraft to a base that could perform a task that we were not able to do. At home station that does not happen unless it is a depot-level repair. There is a lot of "doing more with less," and fortunately I have an outstanding team of technicians to work with to get the job done.