How to catch a falcon by the tail

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- The tension must be right on, down to a thousandth of an inch. 

If the measurement is off, it means a multimillion dollar F-16 Fighting Falcon could careen off the runway at nearly 150 mph. 

And if the system fails completely, that same gray metal beast, filled with jet fuel, and its pilot will meet an unpleasant end at the termination point of the runway. 

That last line of defense is the mobile aircraft arresting system and its 1,200 feet of arresting tape. Maintaining it is the responsibility of three Airmen in the power production section and Airmen from the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron. 

"When a jet can't stop because of some sort of sytem failure, we're involved," said Staff Sgt Joshua Maroney, NCO in charge of barrier maintenance and a maintainer for the four 18,000-pound arresting systems here. 

When a jet is unable to stop safely on its own, the Airmen scramble to the arresting system before the jet lands. They prepare the system, which includes a 153-foot long steel cable stretched across the runway, for a hard engagement. The three Airmen are ready to scramble out to the arresting systems any time of day or night. This means they eat, sleep and work in the same area, right off the taxiway, less than a one-minute ride to any aircraft arresting system. 

"We haven't had an uninterrupted night's sleep in a long time," said Staff Sgt. Robert Neubert, one of the system maintainers. "The phone rings to warn of inflight emergencies almost every night." 

While their nights are less than peaceful, their days involve the repeated task of maintaining and inspecting the arresting systems.

"The environment is hard on the systems," said Senior Airman Robert Andrezejewski. "We're perfoming maintenance on arresting systems more often here than we would at home because of the heat and dust." 

Each inspection takes a few hours, and if something needs repairs, it could take as many as 12 to 14 hours. There are no breaks for the trio during those hours, and there is no outsourcing the work. The Airmen do all the maintenance and repairs themselves.

The crew also maintains the generators that supply power to the air traffic control tower, explosive ordnance disposal and the emergency airfield lighting system. 

But the real test for the Airmen is when the system is engaged -- when they have three-and-half minutes to pull in the 1,200 feet of tape and cable and clear the runway for the emergency landing. 

"There is no room for failure for these guys," said Master Sgt. James Bomboy, 332nd ECES power production superintendent. 

"It's a lot of work for just three of them, so we augment them with the 18 members of our generator teams when necessary but these guys accomplish the bulk of the barrier missions. They do a great job."