Courtesy Photo | The F-35 Joint Program Office’s latest SpotLIGHTNING features Mario Valle, Lightning...... read more read more
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The Lightning Support Team (LST) at the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) strives to provide for its customer base as quick as its name. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, the LST delivers in-service engineering and logistics support to F-35s in the field.
"Our number one objective is ensuring continued airworthiness and aircraft safety of the fielded fleet aircraft and propulsion systems," said Aaron Mummert, LST director. "We are responsible for the in-service engineering and logistic products and services that are directive in nature and issued to the F-35 fleets and depots."
Mario Valle, LST logistics lead, heads a team responsible for the sustainability of the F-35 for U.S. services, international partners, and foreign military sales customers. With the warfighter always in mind, Valle understands what it means to the warfighter to get the needed materials to accomplish the mission. This necessity drives him and his team to innovate and deliver solutions.
As a retired Marine maintenance officer who has experienced life on the flight line, Valle knows what the maintenance crews need to support the F-35.
His career journey landed Illinois-born Valle in the perfect niche with the JPO's LST. Valle enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in August 1991 as an eager young man ready to make his mark. As an F/A-18 structural and hydraulic mechanic, he deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Japan multiple times over the next several years in that role. With his growing mechanical expertise, he became a hydraulics instructor for all Naval platforms at A school, teaching Marines and Sailors to become aviation mechanics.
As a newly selected warrant officer in 2003, Valle entered The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia.
"I've been surrounded by fabulous leadership in my military career that mentored me as a Marine," Valle said. "I became a maintenance material control officer for Marine All Weather Fighter Attack Squadron 332 based at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, with the F/A-18. We deployed to Iraq for Operation Iraqi Freedom. And I'm proud to say we held the longest streak of mishap-free flight hours for a tactical jet squadron at over 109,000 hours in 2005."
During his time as a maintenance officer at Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 31, Valle realized that aviation maintenance had a bigger logistics footprint.
"MALS 31 broadens your logistics feel for the complexity of aviation maintenance. You see how aviation logistics works and how you depend on the supply resources to sustain the fight. You are stuck in the middle, but it is a good place to be," he said. "It opened my eyes to how this works – how parts come to keep airplanes ready and flying safe."
The F-35 came into Valle’s professional life in 2010 when the Marines selected him to be the first maintenance material control officer at Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, the training squadron for the Marine Corps’ incoming F-35Bs. Their task is to codify initial instructions of F-35B maintenance and conduct the initial flights to train student pilots.
"Here, it was the very beginning of F-35B documentation for the unit, or the foundational documents that would be used to educate others working on the short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35s,” said Valle.
"On January 12, 2012, we received our first F-35 jets," said Valle of BF-6 and BF-8 landing that day. "We immediately began the training with industry partners and active-duty Marines. We were a hybrid team on day one."
The training was on the job. It accomplished such tasks as towing the jets, dispatching pilots into jets, conducting joint tech data validation and verification, and other routine maintenance of the F-35. The Marines flew the first flight with the B variant May 22, 2012, a fitting date as it was the 100th birthday of Marine aviation.
"To now take what we had written theoretically and apply it in principle to validate our own ideas was the mission," Valle remembered of the first days with the brand-new F-35B fighters. "We took our legacy mindset and translated it to the F-35, our newest and unmatched platform."
Valle retired from the Marine Corps and became the USMC service representative with the LST in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2015. Years before, he was the customer as a Marine with the F-35B.
"I now have the very unique perspective of how to take care of the Marine because I used to be that person on the line asking about parts and when they were coming in,” said Valle. "I know what is expected of me as the service representative." Valle was named Naval Air Systems Command Logistics Employee of the Year in 2016 for his role as the USMC service representative.
As the JPO LST lead logistician for service integration, responding to and closing out action requests are Valle’s main concentration. An action request is the fleet's lifeline to get tactical help, explained Valle, and the LST has to review each request and identify the plan to resolve it.
"The customers are either at a workstop or about to hit a workstop," Valle said. "We need to be prepared to get their F-35s serviced and ready to fly again."
Through the benefit of the hybrid team at the JPO in Fort Worth, Valle's team reduced the action requests by over 2,000 during a two-year time period from 2018 to 2020.
"These are the diligent efforts made by the logisticians and engineers from around the globe that support all our customers who operate the F-35," he said of the diverse team at the JPO.
"Those warfighters and customers are an extension of the F-35 family, and I do consider it a family," said Valle. "We see an opportunity to get things better and immediately set out on our mission to make that a reality."
Valle expressed that it is important to understand when the 'good' is working, too.
"Realizing when things are working well and knowing when to move on to the next task is valuable to put into play," he said.
Valle’s advice to the younger members of the JPO includes advising them to focus on the importance of understanding the customer, as well as taking advantage of educational opportunities, which has helped him excel in his career.
"Never pass up on an opportunity to look at improving your knowledge," said Valle.
"I incorporate the knowledge I've learned of lean concepts and principles and use it to empower my team," continued Valle, about raising up others around him. "If we don't encourage our people to get uncomfortable with their ideas, we won't bring it to the next level. Trust is key, let your people go out there and get you recommendations on what to do next to close out an action request."
Education is number one, said Valle, especially when you work with the most sophisticated aircraft in defense history. However, Valle views knowing your customer as a close second.
"Live a day in the life of your customer; find an opportunity to serve with the warfighter because what you do off the flight line impacts the warfighters on it," he said. "Communicating that field experience with the customer is significant in understanding what you are doing in your job to help those warfighters putting in action requests."
Valle sees the maintenance of the F-35 as personal.
"We are not maintaining the F-35. We are maintaining our F-35. It is an extension of our family,” said Valle. “These are our sons, daughters, mothers, fathers out there, and we are here to keep them safe and ready."
| Date Taken: | 01.11.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 01.11.2023 13:05 |
| Story ID: | 436547 |
| Location: | ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA, US |
| Hometown: | LA SALLE, ILLINOIS, US |
| Web Views: | 1,164 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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