Spin me right ‘round, baby, right ‘round

Photo By Staff Sgt. Stacey Thornburg | An A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft taxis at Capitán FAP José A. Quiñones González International Airport July 8, 2023, in Chiclayo, Peru . This is the first time A-10s have ever operated south of the equator. (Photo courtesy Col. Brett Waring)  

VALDOSTA, GA, UNITED STATES

09.10.2023

Story by Staff Sgt. Stacey Thornburg 

442d Fighter Wing

36 hours. That’s all it took. How it began? Toward the end of an exercise in the middle of Chiclayo, Peru a bird decided against his flock to take a heading right to the wing of one of our beloved A-10C Thunderbolt IIs. Not much to report on the fate of the bird and the aircraft itself is where the story actually begins.

During the recent Air Force Reserve led international exercise, #PatriotFury23, the vulture-type bird hit our bird dead center (no pun intended) damaging one of the slats in front of the wing and grounding the aircraft due to a now weakened structural shell. We needed to get it fixed as soon as possible in order to bring the aircraft back home. It took a true team to come together to turn this incident right ‘round. After learning of a C-17 from Pittsburg Air Reserve Base, Penn., that was scheduled to go through Dobbins Air Force Base, Ga., and then onward to Chiclayo, Peru, Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., was able to ship an extra slat. Time constraints and packaging issues made the package miss the window to fly commercially. It was then sent via FedEx. However, instead of going directly to Dobbins AFB– due to an error in the zip code – it got sent to a FedEx facility in Atlanta. As a secondary option, we coordinated with the 74 Fighter Generation Squadron at Moody Air Force Base, Ga., who had another slat available. Capt. Kenneth Mendenhall and Chief Master Sgt. Christopher Erff, both assigned to the 476 Maintenance Squadron, made arrangements to get it packaged up, drove it up to Dobbins AFB in a conjoined effort with the 94 MXS and 700 Airlift Squadron, put it on the C-17 for the flight to Chiclayo, Peru, which took approximately six to seven hours. It finally arrived in Peru around eight o’clock at night. Maintenance assigned to the 924 AMXS worked overnight to put the new slat on, and get the damaged one packaged back up and ready for shipment. Airplanes took off at 8:45 the next morning back to Moody AFB – slat and all! As far as the slat Davis-Monthan originally sent, Mendenhall and Erff made the trip to FedEx to retain the part, brought it back to Moody as a replacement to their inventory. “It was a monumental effort among several AFRC units to deliver the slat to Peru on time,” said Mendenhall.

“Bottom line is they got it done in an incredibly professional fashion. The airplanes would have been there for another four days, which then hurts active duty. There is a lot of coordination to move airplanes across the ocean from the southern hemisphere. You have to have a tanker and you have to be on time because that tanker is expected to move onwards to his next mission. Davis Monthan AFB expected me to have their aircraft back, so they can continue in their mission of training students,” said Col. Brett Waring, the commander of the 476 FG. Adverse conditions can easily cause a negative ripple effect. How we respond to those adverse conditions is crucial.

36 hours only and all the missions continue on! #tigerslead

• Date Taken: 09.10.2023
• Date Posted: 09.10.2023 09:20
• Story ID: 453074
• Location: VALDOSTA, GA, US
• Hometown: VALDOSTA, GA, US