U.S. Air Forces Central, Baghdad Media Outreach Team

Story by Senior Airman Alyssa Miles

SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq – Several American and Iraqi airmen are working together to move parts from a wrecked C-130 on Sather Air Base to New Al Muthana AB where they will be used as training aids for Iraqi aircraft maintainers.

The 447th Air Expeditionary Group's fire department and safety office as well as Iraqi airmen and their American advisors from the 321st Air Expeditionary Advisory Group will retrieve several items, including the dry bay and fuel cell sections of the left wing, main and nose landing gear struts and various electrical and hydraulic components.

According to the 321st AEAG's Master Sgt. Dellet Weaver, NAMAB aircraft maintenance advisor, the parts will be altered so they can't be installed in any aircraft and will be hung in the maintenance hangar as visual training aids.

"As we get these parts, we will start building training aids," said Weaver, a native of Grafton, W.Va. "We're going to suspend the nose landing gear from a gig so it hangs properly. It will allow the Iraqis to see how things move throughout the strut. We'll be able to simulate how to repack leaky struts on the aircraft."

"As we build each training aid, we will also be able to observe Iraqis training their own air force," he continued. "They will still be able to use these tools to continue the training for their new airmen who come in. This is something they'll have here for many years to come and they'll be able to train like we do in our Air Force."

The idea to salvage the parts came from the previous rotation of Iraqi training advisors who discovered the wreckage in an open area not frequently visited by Sather Airmen. While the exact history of the aircraft is not known by those here, Weaver, who is deployed from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., says the aircraft is believed to have been destroyed after it crashed short of a runway outside of the wire, without casualties.

Capt. Martin Hagg, NAMAB maintenance officer advisor deployed from Tinker AFB, Okla., expects the training aids to be ready for use within the next three months. Under the tutelage of the advisors, Iraqi maintenance technicians will modify the parts to create the training aids, thereby gaining an indepth assembly knowledge of the parts. While the construction of the aids may take some time, the training they provide will be well worth the wait.

"It's always better to get hands-on training than it is to get just theory training," said Hagg, a native of Smethport, Pa. "You can always look at a picture or take them out to an actual aircraft and point the parts out and say 'this is how what we talked about works.' But if you actually get your hands on it, if you can cut wires and rework wires, crawl inside a fuel cell -- that always gives you a higher fidelity of training. So with the equipment we are getting here, it's going to really increase the fidelity of the training we can do without being concerned about breaking an operational aircraft."

Weaver agrees.

"I believe the benefits will become apparent very soon after we get the parts done and are able to set up the training aids," he said. "I believe everyone is going to benefit from it. The Americans will benefit on a personal level by working with the Iraqi air force and getting to know them. The main beneficiary will be the Iraqi air force who will get to continue on with their training."

"The Iraqis seem to be very excited," Weaver continued. "They're more than willing to help us retrieve these items, help set up their training aids and have the equipment each shop needs to train their new folks on. They're very excited about it."

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