Photo By Randall Burlingame | Airman 1st Class Jose Lozada Jr., 104th Maintenance Group structural maintainer, works...... read more read more
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Airmen in the 104th Maintenance Group structural maintenance shop are responsible for repairing and maintaining the structure of the F-15 Eagles at the 104th Fighter Wing.
In addition to maintaining the airframe itself, the shop purposefully performs a variety of tasks including painting, sanding, and repainting the aircraft.
This is all done to provide aircraft that are in flyable condition, and to prevent aircraft damage that would be determined as a non-flyable condition.
“We’re making the aircraft available,” said Master Sgt. Leo Burbee, 104th MXG aircraft structural supervisor. “It’s as simple as that. We have to make the aircraft available to make the next sortie.”
There is a lot of coordination that goes into their work, said Burbee. The structural maintenance team works hard to make sure scheduled maintenance does not interfere with the wing’s flying mission. They also design, manufacture, and paint all of the decals on the F-15s here.
“We look at the flying schedule to see which aircraft is flying and which aircraft is not flying,” said Burbee. “Then it’s taking a look at the aircraft that are not flying and fixing things before they become a larger issue. A lot of it is preventative.”
The structural maintainers are consistently able to meet the demands of their career field largely due to the team they have, said Burbee.
“We have a great team,” he said. “I’ve been the supervisor for two years, and in those two years we’ve had eight new people come into the shop.
One of the new Airmen, Airman 1st Class Mike Scuderi, 104th MXG structural maintainer, recently excelled while at Patrick Air Force Base for temporary duty training, said Burbee.
Scuderi said he enjoys working in the structural maintenance shop and having a direct impact on mission readiness here.
“There are a lot of different things that we learn how to do,” said Scuderi. “It’s a little scary but it also makes you feel pretty important at the same time.”
| Date Taken: | 03.05.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 03.05.2019 15:00 |
| Story ID: | 312984 |
| Location: | WESTFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, US |
| Web Views: | 137 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Structural maintenance proficiency provides mission ready F-15s, by Randall Burlingame, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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