Airman keeps Air Force structures intact

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Mike Dorsey
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  It is midnight as Senior Airman Sheri Wilson begins her day. When she arrives at the shop, she is bombarded with a load of jobs to accomplish and gets hit with a major problem to tackle.

She goes out to the flightline and inspects the cracked “skin” of an aircraft. Applying a repair technique she uses to prevent the metal from splitting any further, Airman Wilson goes back to the shop and gets the materials to permanently fix the damage. Fortunately, she does not have to ground the multimillion dollar piece of equipment for extensive repair.

As an aircraft structural maintenance specialist with the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron at this forward-deployed location, such a scenario is common where Airman Wilson’s job largely centers on the “skin” -- or exterior -- of an aircraft.

“We do everything -- (replace hydraulic) lines, fix the airframe if it cracks or dents, repair fiberglass, and we paint too,” she said. “It’s very important to the mission because without us the plane won’t get off the ground.”

While she is not the only aircraft structural maintenance specialist here, she is one of the few whose career field calls on her skills and ability to work on the fighter, bomber, cargo and reconnaissance aircraft assigned here. And, aircraft operations occur around the clock.

The constant activity here calls for more than routine and preventive maintenance, officials said. Structural repair is also necessary at a moment’s notice to keep the flying mission flowing.

Airman Wilson said she sees her job here as nothing less than a welcomed challenge -- both personally and professionally.

“The most challenging thing about my job is working on all the different (aircraft) because they all have different criteria in how (they are repaired),” said Airman Wilson, whose husband, a fellow maintainer, is deployed to a different location.

The Live Oak, Fla., native divides her 12-hour shift between the flightline and the structural maintenance shop, repairing aircraft based on their condition.

Changing rivets, removing screws and fixing dented or cracked metal on the aircraft’s exterior can take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours or even days to repair. It is then that she said she makes the call to ground aircraft.

Though her work is not in the public eye, her production in the field has long caught the attention of fellow maintainers.

“She really works hard every day dealing with flightline and phase structure discrepancies from midnight ‘till noon six days a week,” said Senior Master Sgt. Dale Olson, 379th EMXS fabrication flight chief. “Our jets wouldn’t be flying as well as they do without her.”

While wing leaders are well aware of her daily production success, it is Airman Wilson’s peers who know her best and respect her the most, they said.

“I’ve run across few people as skilled as she is,” Staff Sgt. Jason Milner said. “She is very good.” Sergeant Milner, a nine-year veteran in the career field who works in the same shop with Airman Wilson here, and at their home base of Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. “With all the work we have to do, she continues to find ways to improve herself.”

With fewer than three years in the career field, Airman Wilson takes it all in stride. She credits her success in the Air Force with the adventurous side of her personality.

“I’d never done anything mechanical, so I wanted to try this because it sounded interesting,” she said reflecting back on when she began her career.

“I was kind of curious. Now, the most satisfying thing about my job is seeing something I just fixed (get off the ground) and to see how happy the (maintainers and pilots) are to get the jet off the ground.”