B-52 washing

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM -- deployed to a forward location perform a "wash" on a B-52 Stratofortress. The planes are washed routinely every 120 days to prevent corrosion. The base at which these troops are deployed is currently home of the 457th Air Expeditionary Group which has been positioned to support Operation Iraqi Freedom. The operation is the multinational coalition effort to liberate the Iraqi people, eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and end the regime of Saddam Hussein. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Stacia M. Willis)

Buff bath

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM -- A maintenance crew begins the process to wash the 159-foot long B-52 Stratofortress bomber April 7 at a forward-deployed location. More than a dozen workers took six hours to clean oil, grease and dirt off the four-decade old airplane, which is part of the coalition bombing effort in Iraq. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason Tudor)

Engine work

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM -- Airman 1st Class Efren Molinar twists a screw out of a B-52 Stratofortress engine cowling April 7 at a forward-deployed location. Molinar was one of three crew chiefs disassembling the Buff to be washed that day, part of the start of a "contingency phase" maintenance operation that would last three days. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason Tudor)

Cleaning the Buff cowling

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM -- Airman 1st Class Clint Kruetzbender rinses out the inside of a B-52 Stratofortress engine cowling April 7 at a forward-deployed location. Kruetzbender was one of about a dozen maintainers washing the Buff after 300 hours of flying. The Buff entered the first part of a "contingecy phase" of maintenance. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jason Tudor)

Scrubbing pads join cluster bombs in crucial fight

Published April 8, 2003
By Tech. Sgt. Jason Tudor
457th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs

OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM (AFPN) -- To the arsenal of Air Force cluster bombs, joint direct-attack munitions and Maverick missiles, add scrubbing pads, towels and pressure washers.

Without them, B-52 Stratofortress maintainers could not keep the forward-deployed location's hulking, aged aircraft clean and flying coalition bombing campaigns in Iraq.

The group placed bomber No. 0060, Iron Butterfly, in to the "contingency phase" April 7. The phase comes with every 300 hours of flying. As a part of that phase, the airplanes are inspected and repaired. But first, there is the trip to the wash rack where about a dozen maintainers wash it.

Airman 1st Class Clint Kruetzbender is one of several maintainers washing a Buff, as the aircraft is affectionately known, for the first time. He said having a clean airplane means a safe airplane in combat.

"If we don't wash it, we won't find the defects," Kruetzbender said. "If we don't find the defects, something might fall off, and we don't want something falling off over Baghdad."

After crew chiefs remove the engine cowlings and set them on the ground, the wash crew goes to work. Applying the soap, workers scrub the inside of the cowlings and rinse them out. As some wash jet covers, others are washing engine mounts, wheel wells and parts of the fuselage.

The mixed dirt, oil, grease and water all flow into an underground collection tank. Those fluids are later sucked out and taken away for environmentally safe disposal by a contractor. In total, it is a six-hour process that starts the contingency phase.

Master Sgt. William Cecil, supervising the wash job, said putting the hose to the bomber is not punishment.

"Everyone gets his (or her) turn. No one's exempt from washing," Cecil said. "And the more bodies we have, the faster it goes."

It is messy work. The fluids splash around like a child playing in a bathtub. Most of the wash team is clad in teal green rubber suits as they scrub their way back down to the Buff's dark olive-drab paint.

Despite the toil and mess of the wash, Airman 1st Class Jennifer Hensen said she is happy to do the work -- with one exception.

"We'll see what happens when I have to do it all the time," she said, laughing.