Fairchild NCO receives $10,000 for great idea

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Larry W. Carpenter Jr.
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  A Fairchild Air Force Base NCO used his knowledge and experience as a KC-10 Extender and KC-135 Stratotanker crew chief to come up with an idea worth $10,000.

Tech. Sgt. Cade Peterson, a 92nd Maintenance Operations Squadron senior weapon system coordinator, used the the Innovative Development through Employee Awareness program, known as IDEA, to make changes to certain technical order procedures and save the Air Force more than $2.6 million annually.

"As far as I know, Sergeant Peterson is only the second person from Fairchild to receive the $10,000 reward," said Master Sgt. Bill Bowers, the Fairchild AFB IDEA program manager. 

There was a component on the KC-135 that was a continual cause of or air aborts, which prevented the aircraft from completing its mission after takeoff.

"It cost a lot of money when the plane had to abort because both the refueler and the receiver aren't able to complete the mission," Sergeant Peterson said. 

He knew a new procedure could more efficiently service the main landing gear centering cylinder, which would save time and money.

"I was working and there happened to be another failure of the MLG centering cylinder," Sergeant Peterson said. "At that point, I took a look at the technical data and some of it didn't make sense." 

The high failure rate of the centering cylinder had an estimated cost to the Air Force in mission aborts and increased material sustainment of $2.6 million annually, according to figures gathered by an engineering company responsible for validating Sergeant Peterson's suggested changes.

The package submitted through the IDEA program took Sergeant Peterson two weeks to put together, including more than 45 hours of off-duty time. The entire process of getting the changes accepted took more than 18 months. During that time, engineers analyzed and implemented the recommended changes.

"At one point, I hosted a conference between the engineers, the lead KC-135 (technical order) guy and myself," Sergeant Peterson said. "When all was said and done, they approved all my changes as suggested. It's refreshing to know that you put so much time into something and it's really going to make a difference."

Sergeant Peterson's suggestions included changes to servicing procedures and to the main landing-gear centering cylinder design itself.

"One of my suggestions was to simply eliminate unnecessary steps in the procedures for servicing the centering cylinder, which reduced the time from one hour to roughly five minutes," he said.

The IDEA program provides an avenue for Airman to submit suggestions on ways the Air Force can do business more efficiently. 

Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link)

View the comments/letters page