News>Feature - Altus AFB, local community partner to 'grow' mechanics
Photos
Shaine West removes a screw from the finger seal of the no. 3 engine on a KC-135 Stratotanker, Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, in an aircraft hangar at Altus Air Force Base, Okla. West completed the Grow Your Own Mechanic program and is now working full-time for the 97th Maintenace Squadron. West is a sheet metal mechanic assigned to the 97th Maintenance Directorate.(U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Kenneth W. Norman)
Bernabe Mejorado Jr. rolls a tire into a tire-rack at one of the 97th Maintenance Directorate's back-shops Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, at Altus Air Force Base, Okla. Mejorado is an aircraft technician who completed the Grow Your Own Mechanic program and has been working in the 97th MX full-time for three years. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Kenneth W. Norman)
Brandon Caron reviews technical orders before removing a flat pinge panel on a C-17 Globemaster III in an aircraft hangar Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, at Altus Air Force Base, Okla. Caron is currently working as an intern for the 97th Maintenance Directorate through the Grow Your Own Mechanic program. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Kenneth W. Norman)
by Senior Airman Kenneth W. Norman
97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
2/15/2013 - ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFNS) -- Altus, Okla., is known for its agricultural community and an Air Force base. Together, they are not only growing crops, they are "growing" mechanics through the Grow Your Own Mechanic program.
The GYOM program is an aircraft maintenance technician internship program. It was developed in 1999 under the Student Education Employment Plan in cooperation with the Southwest Technology Center's Aviation and Aerospace program providing skilled, aerospace jobs to the local area.
"We were one of the first programs in the Air Force to take advantage of the Student Education and Employment Program," said Michael Prater, the 97th Maintenance Directorate resource management flight chief.
The SWTC, located in the city of Altus, provides the initial aircraft technical training courses in airframe and aircraft engine skills to the mechanic candidates. From there, the 97th MXS provides hands-on experience, building aircraft mechanics. After successfully completing the program, graduates may have an opportunity to work as a Department of Defense employee at Altus AFB.
"We identify the students with an end target position in the 97th MXS, so that they can grow from their trainee-apprenticeship program all the way through to the end at that same position," Prater said.
More than 161 GYOM candidates have been hired between 1999 and 2012, and 93 of those are still active. For one of those candidates, this program has made his dreams come true.
"I think it is a great opportunity," said Bernabe Mejorado Jr., a 97th MXS work leader. "Coming from where I'm from, it was just a dream to be able to work on planes. Now, it is a dream come true for me."
Mejorado first came to Altus to work in the cotton fields and then earned a job in a meat processing plant, working full-time while completing the GYOM program.
"When I was working in the fields, there was a military plane that flew by us and I was like 'There goes my plane,' and my cousin told me 'One day, man,'" Mejorado said. "So when I first started working on the planes, it was beautiful for me."
The 97th MXS is currently hiring mechanics through the GYOM program, but the process is very selective and depends on job vacancy.
"We are hiring, but we are being very selective of our hiring processes," Prater said. "We are trying to hire the very best for the future."
