Forty-eight members of the Montana Air National Guard 120th Airlift Wing attended Maintenance University for job specific training June 9-15 at the Combat Readiness Training Center, Savannah, Georgia.
MTANG was joined by the 123rd AW Kentucky ANG, the school creator and host, 103rd AW Connecticut ANG, 165th AW Georgia ANG, 152nd AW Nevada ANG and 126th AW Scott Air Force Base for a total of approximately 180 students and instructors.
The purpose of MXU is to get the maintainers away from home station and provide a distraction-free environment to train on air force specialty code specific tasks according to Master Sgt. Jeff Romig, MXU Logistics coordinator.
“Kentucky has normally taught in the past, but this year they are deployed so they reached out looking for instructors and the 120th taught flight line, isochronal inspection, fuels, avionics, non-destructive inspection, electrics and corrosion control,” Senior Master Sgt. Jim Kerner, MTANG accessory flight chief said.
“Now that Montana has stepped up and helped us in the instructor staff, our guys (Kentucky ANG) have been able to actually learn, too,” Romig said.
The classes are a mixture of the units in attendance.
“They go to class together and someone will bring up something they learned at their unit and spread the knowledge to everybody else,” Kerner said.
The CRTC is for training but the Georgia ANG is just across the runway making it easy for the electrical students to visit.
“(I visited an) actual electrical and environmental shop of the Georgia ANG and we got to see how they operate and the different tools that they utilize I also got to learn a little bit about the H3 (a newer version compared to the H1 MTANG maintains) model,” Airman First Class Kyra Langston, 120th AW electrical and environmental aircraft systems apprentice, said.
In 2017 MTANG deployed with the Illinois ANG which had newer models of C-130s and initially some MTANG maintainers could not work because of the upgrades, Kerner said.
The 120th will deploy with Connecticut ANG in 2019, Kerner said.
“Here we’re working with and can talk to some of our counterparts so they can learn what the skills are and who we need to send,” Kerner said.
This training can be done at homestation but the CRTC allows for hands on training with different equipment and models members would see while deployed, Kerner said.
“The CRTC can be used by anybody, they have aerospace ground equipment that can be used for fighters only,” Kerner said. “They got to go drive a bomb lift, that was a plus for them because when they deploy they have to work on all equipment, something that they'd never get at home.”
Langston encourages others to attend MXU.
“Never gone on this trip before. I would encourage them to go because it’s just it’s a great opportunity,” Langston said. “It’s strictly a learning experience, you don’t have to rush to get stuff done. It’s a very nice environment to do things that you might not necessarily be comfortable with and get more information out of it.”
“We can’t build this on our own, nor make assumptions of what everyone needs,” Romig said.
MXU started in 2011 and continues to grow. Romig encourages other units to get involved in the planning process for MXU 2019.
| Date Taken: | 07.19.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 12.28.2018 11:00 |
| Story ID: | 305590 |
| Location: | GREAT FALLS, MT, US |
| Web Views: | 57 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Montana Airmen hone skills at maintenance school, by TSgt Lindsey Soulsby, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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