Aircraft maintainers key to sorties milestone

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Mareshah Haynes
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  If there was ever a question as to what the Air Force has contributed to the war on terrorism, it was answered this week.

The Air Force just marked a historic milestone -- 1 million sorties, operational military flying missions, flown in support of the war on terrorism. Airmen at Balad Air Base, Iraq, are contributing to those missions by putting F-16 Fighting Falcons in the air on a daily basis. Each career field in the Air Force impacts the generation of sorties in some way or another, from the Airmen who provide nutritional meals to help fuel and maintain the health of the pilots to those who fuel and maintain the aircraft.

"No matter what goes in any other career field, we're here 24-hours a day," said Staff Sgt. Craig Hanrahan, 332nd Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron aircraft fuels systems repair journeyman deployed from Spangdahlem AB, Germany. "These jets need constant maintaining to keep up with the [operations] tempo."

Across the Air Force there are squadrons of Airmen, like those at Balad AB, who specialized in different areas of aircraft maintenance, ensuring America's airpower is ready to engage the enemy anytime, anyplace.

Just like vehicles, aircraft undergo scheduled maintenance inspections after the aircraft has been flown for a specified number of hours, said Staff Sgt. Leonard DeLeon, 332nd EMXS fuels systems journeyman deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The Balad Airmen take turns working 12-hour shifts day and night to get aircraft returned to flying status following these "major inspections," which take approximately 72 hours to complete.

"Every time a jet comes to us, we de-panel it and we break down the gear and do all the special inspections of the gear and the entire jet," said Staff Sgt. Daniel Crane, 332nd EMXS phase section floor chief deployed from Spangdahlem AB. "Then we remove parts that we find are cracked or out of limits and then replace them and do all the [operations] checks before we return the jet to the flightline."

The F-16s flying in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom are being flown five times more than during peacetime. Since the aircraft are flown more frequently, they must also be inspected and serviced more, which means more work for maintainers. Additional factors maintainers have to take into consideration are combat maneuvers performed by pilots and the mechanical effects these maneuvers have on the aircraft.

Extreme weather conditions also play havoc on heavily used planes.

"In the sandy environment, the F-16 tends to have a lot more strain put on its components," Sergeant Hanrahan said. "There are more leaks and damage just due to the elements."

As the jets age, the Air Force gathers information from the maintainers who work on the airframes about what issues affect the fleet as a whole, Sergeant Hanrahan said. With this knowledge, more inspections and upgrades are implemented to mitigate these issues.

Even with the aging fleet, long workdays and extreme weather conditions, Balad aircraft maintainers, and others in the area of responsibility, have made it possible for pilots to fly 1 million sorties over the last five years and nearly 5,000 close-air support sorties this year alone.

"It's gratifying knowing that we get to take part in world-changing events," Sergeant Hanrahan said. "It's also an honor to work on aircraft in the Air Force."

Five years later, after the first sortie of the war was flown, maintainers remain proud and dedicated to their mission.

"We keep the airplanes going and they keep destroying [enemy targets]," Sergeant Crane said. "It's cool knowing that without you, the plane wouldn't be up there doing that."
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