Maintenance pros backbone of AFN operations

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Angelique N. Smythe
  • 65th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
LAJES FIELD, Azores --  American Forces Network Europe is celebrating 70 years of providing command information, news and entertainment to Department of Defense personnel and their families throughout overseas locations.

Seven decades of informing and entertaining Airmen would not be possible without some hard-working, behind-the-scenes, AFN personnel.

At Lajes Field, AFN's most visible Airmen are its radio and television broadcasters, but the backbone of the network's operations consists of Airmen who are not as visible - AFN's broadcast engineering maintenance team.

AFN-Lajes currently employs three technicians on its maintenance team - Senior Airman Robin McClain, his Portuguese counterpart, Duarte Rosa, and their supervisor, Master Sgt. Jacob Brungardt.

Rosa has been an AFN-Lajes maintainer for approximately 28 years. McClain has been stationed at Lajes Field for one month. Brungardt is less than two weeks new to the installation.

Despite that vast difference, together they ensure all equipment remains operational in order to support the 65th Air Base Wing commander in maintaining readiness and morale.

"If the wing commander needs to push a message out to the base or if there's an emergency on the island, and everyone needs to be aware, all of AFN-Lajes' equipment needs to remain mission-ready," said McClain. "Our job is to troubleshoot and fix problems and maintain all of the equipment so that the operators, or our broadcasters, can do their job correctly."

Radio and television are two very important tools leaders use in communicating with a community, especially in times of disaster.

"I remember back in 1980 - I was not yet working in AFN - we had a big earthquake on the island," said Rosa, a Lajes Field local national employee. "The whole island was without power and telephones for about two weeks. The only two stations that were able to stay on the air were AFN-Lajes and Air Base 4 Radio Lajes because the base had their own power plant. Radio was the only means of communication during those weeks after the big earthquake."

The maintainers' primary duty is preventative maintenance. They maintain all studio and broadcast equipment, as well as up to 15 different systems.

"There are always little things to be repaired, like tripods and antennas," said Rosa. "We maintain anything from satellite dishes to cameras, audio boards and automation systems. Almost everything is computerized with just a few exceptions. In the past, we had tape machines, video cassette machines, the camera systems - very complicated machines - but now it has all evolved into digital systems."

No matter the type of equipment - new or old - the maintainers work together in keeping all of AFN-Lajes' systems up and running.

"We maintain all the equipment the operators use," said McClain. "We take care of everything from cameras to even tripods. We also help with satellite feeds coming in from Europe. We deal with the radio antennas that broadcast over base and most of the island. We maintain all the servers, receivers, amplifiers, wires and everything equipment-wise that helps get messages to the base community and family members here."

Master Sgt. Eric Kerr, AFN-Lajes station manager, compares the maintainers to a fire station. When something goes wrong with their complex equipment, the maintainers need to be ready to respond at any moment, said Kerr.

Up until that point, they spend time taking care of smaller issues, as well as conducting preventative maintenance.

"A broadcaster is trained to think differently than a maintenance person," said Kerr. "When something goes wrong on a piece of equipment we're using, my first instinct is to press all the buttons; that's not a good idea - it usually makes things worse. When I know I have (the maintainers), I am less likely to make those mistakes, and I'm going to call one of them in. They're going to think about it from a maintenance perspective and fix whatever is broken. They support us and we support the base - that's how it works."

Both McClain and Rosa expressed a love of their careers due to constantly evolving technology.

"(McClain) deals more with computers and I do more of the analog systems," said Rosa. "We're always faced with new things; something is always being innovated. That's the interesting part of it."

McClain said his career field always keeps him on his toes.

"You're always reading, always learning something new," said McClain. "I also like being in that problem-solver role. Being there to help people fix things is great."

Kerr expressed his gratitude in having these maintainers as part of the AFN-Lajes team.

"I appreciate their ability to solve problems quickly and do it in a relatively inexpensive fashion," said Kerr. "If we lose anything that we have, we may not be able to get a replacement for it, and that might hurt our mission. Money is tight and equipment is scarce - so that's why these guys are so important."