Photo By Tech. Sgt. Ashley Taylor | EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska – U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Brandon Coffman, a 335th...... read more read more
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Anyone who has packed for an extended trip may have experienced the challenges of identifying the necessities, and cutting out the “nice to haves.”
Aside from clothes and personal belongings, imagine packing enough tools for more than 140 maintainers to successfully sustain more than 10 aircraft throughout a two-and-a-half-week period.
Members from the 335th Aircraft Maintenance Unit based out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, faced this task head-on in preparation for NORTHERN EDGE 2017, and have executed this concept with flying colors.
Initially, the 335th AMU faced a few obstacles which could have kept F-15E Strike Eagle dual-role fighter aircraft from the 335th Fighter Squadron grounded, however the 335th persevered because halting the mission was not in their vocabulary.
“The cargo with our tools on it arrived late, but we were able to work with the 18th Aggressor Squadron and the 354th Maintenance Squadron to acquire the tools we needed to keep our jets flying,” said Staff Sgt. Ryan Merritt, a 335th AMU crew chief. “Even with logistical delays at first, we were able to work with other units to make our mission happen.”
It requires a conglomeration of maintainers to keep the 335th FS pilots in the air; from crew chiefs to weapons load systems, everyone plays a crucial role in accomplishing the mission.
However, this isn’t the first rodeo for some members of the 335th, including Staff Sgt. Scott Dougherty, the 335th AMU weapons load crew team chief, who experienced NE15.
“With this being my second time at NORTHERN EDGE, I had a good idea of what to expect,” said Dougherty. “The biggest change this time is that we brought less people, which gives us a bigger workload, but also allows us a better chance to get more hands-on experience.”
Flying two sorties a day, maintainers work nearly non-stop to keep the jets operational; allowing each pilot to maximize their training.
“The operations tempo here is very similar to our home station, but being on TDY puts us out of our comfort zone,” said Dougherty. “At home, we are familiar on how things run and where everything is located, so it took a little while to get in a groove here and make sure everything is where it needs to be.”
With another week left in NE17, the 335th has more time to improve processes and make operations even smoother.
“So far NORTHERN EDGE has been successful and we have not faced any issues we couldn’t resolve,” said Dougherty. “For the remainder of this exercise, I want my crew to learn different experiences and different aspects of their job they potentially might not learn while at home.”
| Date Taken: | 05.05.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.05.2017 20:16 |
| Story ID: | 232812 |
| Location: | EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, AK, US |
| Web Views: | 105 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 335th AMU: Maintaining a mission thousands of miles away for NE17, by TSgt Ashley Taylor, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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