Yokota radar techs keep Pacific aircraft safe

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Val Gempis
  • Air Force Print News
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan --  Every day, technicians here ensure air traffic control radars correctly and safely track incoming and outgoing Department of Defense military and contracted civilian aircraft.

Radar is air traffic control’s primary surveillance system, said Tech. Sgt. Michael Smith, ground radar systems supervisor with the 374th Communications Squadron here. It allows air traffic controllers to properly coordinate aircraft movements, and it helps to keep the planes at safe distances from each other in the air.

The mission of his five-person team is to maintain, overhaul and repair ground aircraft control and warning systems here, Sergeant Smith said. They use layout drawings, schematics and pictorial diagrams to solve maintenance problems.

Using various electronics equipment, the Airmen also isolate malfunctions through systems checks, visual inspections and voltage checks. They repair an assortment of ground radar subassemblies including antennas, transmitters, receivers, radar beacon systems, video mappers, display systems and associated communication systems. The unit’s Airmen describe it is a very technical job.

“You have to know what you’re doing here,” said Senior Airman Raul Sauceda, a technician. “Nothing here breaks the same way.”

The Airmen said the most challenging part of their work is troubleshooting. Unlike other jobs where you just open a file cabinet and hand folders to customers, these Airmen must sometimes dig through a mountain of electronic gadgets to find a problem, Airman Sauceda said.

“It’s a great job. It is different every day,” said Staff Sgt. Kelly McKenzie, also a technician.

She said it is intimidating to work on a panel with hundreds of circuit boards, wires and other components. At times, she said she is amazed at the depth of electronic repair they go through.

“You have to be patient,” Sergeant McKenzie said. “We have someone on-call every day, but we can easily turn into a 24-hour operation if (it’s) needed.”

At times, she said, their job can be as simple as changing a fuse or it can take days to sort out a problem. One of the unit’s Airmen said that at his former base his flight once worked 36 hours checking transistors and resistors to repair a broken radar.

Although their equipment rarely breaks down, technicians here said they are very aware of the Air Force-wide implications if something goes wrong with their systems.

“There’s a lot of pressure working here,” said Staff Sgt. Chris Gillispie, also a technician.

There are about 5,000 airplanes that crisscross the U.S. sky every day, he said. Although air traffic in Japan is not as hectic as in the states, a radar malfunction here can have a tremendous effect on Pacific Command airlift operations.

“There are a lot of aircraft coming in and out of our airspace,” Sergeant Gillispie said. “These planes are traveling from Alaska, Hawaii, Guam and other countries.”

Without radar, the pilots have to be diverted or directed to go to another airfield during situations where there is low visibility. Other air traffic controllers have to pick up these aircraft and air traffic control rules will also change.