Maintainers keep ‘Hercs’ flying

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Mark Getsy
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  Most of them are in there early 20s and some are just out of high school. Their average rank is senior airman and many of them have less than three years in the military.

However, they have one of the most demanding jobs in the Air Force -- keeping multi-million-dollar aircraft flying in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

The more than 200 maintainers with the 386th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron keep a fleet of C-130 Hercules ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Staff Sgt. Peter Marle, an expeditor with the “Green” aircraft maintenance unit, said the C-130 maintenance begins long before the actual launch of the aircraft.

“We are normally there about four hours before takeoff,” Sergeant Marle said. “We do a variety of things. We run exhaust inspections. Check for cracks. And inspect all the panels to make sure none of them are loose -- to name a few.”

Once crews run through everything on their checklists, its time to meet up with the aircrew and do a final inspection before takeoff.

“We just do one last check to make sure all the systems are working and we didn’t miss anything during the preflight,” Sergeant Marle said.

The AMU also recovers aircraft when they return. Crew chief Senior Airman Jonathan Feucht said that is when maintainers look for any problems that may have happened during the flight.

“We basically look for fuel leaks, tire problems, bird strikes or anything else that may have occurred,” Airman Feucht said. “Most of the problems we come across are fixable on the spot. Some have to go in for further maintenance.”

Senior Airman Tye Grasshoff, another crew chief, prefers recovering aircraft compared to launching.

“I think recovering is much easier because if something breaks, you have a little more time to work on the problem,” Airman Grasshoff said. “If something breaks during a launch, you don’t have as much time to get the work done because the mission has to go.”

Maintainers must also cope with the desert environment. It presents many new challenges, compared to stateside missions. The biggest nemesis are dust and sand.

“The engines are affected the most,” Airman Feucht said. “We do a lot of preventive care like changing the filters more frequently [than stateside]. This really helps out.”

No matter what obstacles they run into, the maintainers continue launching and recovering aircraft around the clock, 12-hour shifts at a time. On average, they work on more than a dozen aircraft per shift.

“It’s not a really tough job because we’re well-trained,” Airman Marle said. One thing is we stay busy all the time here. The amount of launches here are much greater than a normal stateside day.”

For one crew chief, working on aircraft is in his blood.

“My father did this when he was in the Air Force,” Senior Airman Chadwick said Moore. “He used to take me out to watch when I was younger.”

Senior Airman Moore said the job, like any job, has its ups and downs.

“The hardest part is deploying all the time,” he said. “However, being able to work on multi-million dollar aircraft is cool.”

The maintainer’s hard work shows in the number of passengers the Hercules airlift from here.

In a little more than two years, the wing -- the hub for Iraq and that provides support for Operation Enduring Freedom and the Horn of Africa -- transported more than one million passengers. It has also transported more than 75,000 tons of cargo.