Deployed Airmen prepare pilots, aircrews to fly, fight, win

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Michael O'Connor
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing public affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  How often do you put your life in the hands of someone else? Pilots and aircrew members do it every time they fly.

It's all a matter of trust, said Capt. Anthony Campbell, a C-130 Hercules aircraft commander deployed with the 737th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, who described flying a 40-something-year-old C-130 like driving your dad's 1960-model automobile and putting a 1,000-plus miles on it every other day.

"Aircrews get a lot of the glory, but we're just a part of the puzzle," said Captain Campbell. "It takes all the moving pieces to make the mission come together. The system in place works so smoothly that the process to get an aircraft ready for a sortie is almost transparent at times, especially when an aircraft is quick-turned so another crew can hop on board with minimal delay and keep on flying."

"I have to trust the Airmen on the ground the same way I do the crew that flies with me--completely," said Captain Campbell.

Regardless of the airframe, Airmen on the ground have earned a high degree of respect from the most senior Air Force leaders for having readied pilots and aircrew members for more than 60 years. Quite simply, they ensure the aircraft and the gear issued to and operated by flyers is fully mission-capable so they can fly, fight and win when the mission order is given.

"The U.S. Air Force is absolutely central to the Global War on Terrorism," said Chief Master Sgt. 'Todd' Small, the command chief master sergeant of Ninth Air Force and United States Central Command Air Forces during his recent visit to a Southwest Asia air base. "The Air Force synchronizes and integrates combat effects in the battle space and our Airmen are the ones who put the 'power' in Air Power. Our Airmen are in the fight, at all levels across the entire spectrum of warfare. They lead from the front. Simply put, they do fantastic work. Regardless of what we ask them to do, they always deliver, and deliver well."

Whether it's for a humanitarian operation, or a civil air patrol, air-bridge, or dropping ordnance on a target kind of mission, the Airmen charged with ensuring these flyers are properly equipped, and with maintaining the Air Force's aging fleets of aircraft, come from a wide array of Air Force Specialty Codes.

Ranging from aircraft armament systems and aerospace propulsion to precision measurement equipment laboratory--PMEL and fuels, to survival, evasion, resistance and escape--SERE to aircrew life support, Airmen in these and other career fields work around the clock to make the mission happen.

"My daily duties include inspection, maintenance and repair on any item that an aircrew member would use in survival, escape and evasion from the enemy in order to return with honor," said Senior Airman Joshua Francovitch, 386th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron aircrew flight equipment. The section issues out a variety of equipment which aids the aircrew to fly un-evaded on a daily basis. Airman Francovitch said, "It gives me pride to know that not only what I do supports the War on Terror, but also keeps people safe."

And keeping pilots and aircrews trained and equipped with mission-capable equipment and aircraft is the first line of defense in ensuring they return from every sortie flown.

"Salute to maintenance!" Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne said during his first stop at a Southwest Asia air base during his recent trip to the region.

In a recent daily Airpower Summary, officials stated that approximately 135 airlift sorties were flown by the C-130 Hercules and C-17 Globemaster III aircrafts providing intra-theater heavy airlift, helping to sustain operations throughout Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa.

These missions resulted in the delivery of 651 tons of cargo, the transportation of 2,542 passengers, and approximately 52,480 pounds of troop re-supply air-dropped in Afghanistan.

The Hercules is a very durable model despite the pounding it's taking with the quantity of sorties flown to the weather conditions in which they operate in today, said Master Sgt. William Galvan, the current lead pro-super for the 386th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. But maintaining them takes a team effort.

"It's not about me, it's not about you, it's about the team," said Sergeant Galvan. "We live and die out here by that philosophy. Crew chiefs are always on the flightline and are ultimately responsible for the aircraft, but without our teams of specialists doing their part, the mission would not happen. They're a big part of us being successful."

Success is measured in different ways, but to keep things in perspective on how important it is to be an aircraft maintainer, the 22-year-veteran Galvan said he asks his Airmen, who most of which are younger than the aircraft they're working on, to go and ask their fellow Soldiers and Marines from time to time where they're going or where they just came back from, and what they're daily life is like out on the city streets and highways in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We take our jobs very serious," said Sergeant Galvan. "The missions with human remains on board are the most humbling missions for us to work. Our goal is to get as many sorties as we can in the air so fewer convoys have to move from point A to point B, thus saving lives--that's what it's all about."