Photo By Staff Sgt. Tiffany Lindemann | Master Sgt. Phillip Luke, 512th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron electrical and...... read more read more
Walking around the makeshift work-station Team Dover has set up in a decommissioned aircraft hangar known as “big beige,” the first things one would most likely notice are the improvised caged tool station, the row of packing containers with aircraft maintenance supplies and a recycled foosball table for break time. The environment resembles that of a deployment.
Since February, the Dover Air Force Base runway has been undergoing a renovation, ultimately shortening the runway, hindering the day-to-day capabilities for the Air Force’s largest cargo place and forcing them to find a new temporary home.
In response to the construction, over 150 Dover active-duty and reserve Airmen and more than a dozen C-5 Super Galaxies, have been TDY to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, to continue regular flying missions.
“It’s not a deployment, but it’s as close as you’re going to get without actually calling it one,” said Chief Master Sgt. Matthew Sirkis, 512th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron superintendent, who is leading the Dover TDY team.
In the midst of the Air Force pursuing total force integration, the TDY has been a chance to showcase active and reserve Airmen coming together to accomplish the mission. The integration has been mostly seamless, said Scott Haynes, 305th Maintenance Group deputy director of maintenance at JB MDL, the host base to Dover.
“There hasn’t really been the, ‘I’m a reservist. I’m active duty,’” said Haynes. “It’s been one team, one fight. We see folks in uniform. Everybody comes together; everybody pulls in the same direction.”
Since arriving to JB MDL in mid-February, Sirkis has led an operation comprised mostly of active-duty Airmen from the 436th Airlift Wing – a prime illustration of the total force initiative.
Out of the approximate 159 “deployed” Airmen, including active-duty maintainers, airfield operators and support agencies, the majority are regular Air Force. Several reservists from the 512th Airlift Wing have also gone on orders regularly to help, said Sirkis.
While the operations tempo has remained mostly consistent compared to home station, condensed manpower has created tighter resources and longer work days for Airmen, he added. The compressed resources and longer days have provided the opportunity for both active duty and reservists to receive quality training, especially young Airmen.
“This has been a good experience for people who don’t have a lot of hands-on time,” said Master Sgt. Phillip Luke, 512th AMXS electrical and environmental systems craftsman, who has been at JB MDL since May. “To get proficient at this job, you need to have a lot of hands-on time. You need to work on the aircraft, and it needs to have a repetition, so that you become proficient at the job. That’s a very challenging aircraft out there.”
For the 512th AW maintainers, working alongside their active-duty counterparts has been a great experience, and one they are constantly training for, said Luke.
“We train for these opportunities to step in and make a difference,” he added. “When they’re looking at me, they’re looking at me to perform just as well as the next guy. We work side-by-side, and we need to be ready when we’re called upon.”
After supervising Luke and 150 other Airmen over the last six months, Sirkis, who had helped plan the relocation since the beginning, returned to Dover AFB Aug. 6. However, he said he plans on returning to McGuire to see the last plane of the TDY take off – at the request of his maintainers.
| Date Taken: | 08.02.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 08.10.2016 13:36 |
| Story ID: | 206690 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, NJ, US |
| Web Views: | 78 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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