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Metal techs spark airpower over Iraq

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kerry Solan-Johnson
  • 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  Dirty-fisted and in a shower of sparks, a metals technician helps shape the face of airpower in Iraq.

Senior Airman Chris Redman, assigned to the 332nd Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron, proves his mettle here welding, heat-treating, fabricating and assembling metal components to support Balad AB Airmen, including the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

"The jet-based work is some of the most important work we have," said Airman Redman, deployed from Cannon Air Force Base, N.M. "When a jet has to get off the ground, it has to get off the ground."

The five metal technicians assigned here are a small but vital component; it is the integrity of their work that enables maintainers to move their jets out of the chocks and into the skies over Iraq. Their blackened knuckles and palms are the result of the hands-on production their craft requires, which Airman Redman calls a "wide range of work."

That range includes the diverse airframes that fly through Balad, from massive C-17 Globemaster IIIs to the small MQ-1Predator unmanned aerial vehicles. Metal technicians often rely on their own ingenuity to fabricate parts such as bolts to bulkhead fittings that might otherwise have to be ordered. 

The technicians aren't limited to Air Force airframes in the joint environment of Balad AB and Logistics Support Area Anaconda.

"The different kinds of customers we have definitely keeps us busy. Right now, I'm welding brackets for (Army) helicopter blades," said Senior Airman Daniel Lindsay, an Air National Guardsman deployed from Joe Foss Field, S.D.

The job isn't always F-16s and other aircraft; their welding, brazing and soldering talents are sought out by many units.

"These Airmen accomplish various projects which help units meet mission needs," said Tech. Sgt. Michael Bertrand, 332nd EMXS metal technology night shift supervisor, who is deployed from the 114th Fighter Wing of the South Dakota Air National Guard. "Many of these units need things they had at home station and don't have here, and they come to us to fabricate these items."

Metal technicians have fashioned work stations for radar approach and control and blast plates for explosive ordnance disposal technicians. These jobs were additional to the typical requirements coming in from aerospace ground equipment, armament, ammunition and maintenance units.

"It's a lot of work," Airman Redman said. "But when I'm in it, it's just me and my spark, just me and my weld."