Photo By Mark Olsen | U.S. Air Force Maintenance Operations Control Airmen, front to back, Senior Master...... read more read more
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Call the MOC.
You can’t go through a single day at the 177th Fighter Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard, without hearing those words over the public address system. Yet few ever consider what is behind those messages and the shear number of them heard on day-in, day-out basis.
The MOC – shorthand for Maintenance Operations Control – is one of the many Maintenance Squadron shops scattered across the base. Located on the second floor of the main hangar, a wrap-around window provides a near panoramic view of the flight line. Various computers, scheduling equipment, binoculars, and bookcases filled with technical orders crowd every inch of available space. In addition, there are numerous phones, including a red “crash” phone, and radios.
If you ever want to know where an aircraft is, look at the status/locator board. On it, small plastic aircraft in the shape of an F-16 Fighting Falcon mounted on magnets provides a visual on where each aircraft is in the maintenance chain. It’s easy to spot, it takes up almost an entire wall. It also looks like a refrigerator door.
“Five people work here with six additional working in their own sections. Most of the rest work in the avionics debriefing section where the pilots are debriefed after they land about the status of their aircraft,” said Senior Master Sgt. William K. Moore, noncommissioned officer in charge, MOC. “Maintenance has always needed a buffer between ops and maintenance, before we controlled it, now we coordinate it. Maintenance works with how long it is going to take to get the aircraft running. We coordinate all the inspections, including the various phase inspections where the entire aircraft is taken apart to check the airframes.”
These inspections can last up to a half to month, so it becomes even more critical from a scheduling standpoint.
“You have to balance between the needs of the right now, versus what is needed for Red Flag, or the Air Expeditionary Force deployments,” said Master Sgt. Daniel J. Miller, controller, MOC. “You learn a little bit about of everything, and you see the big picture. Everybody's background gels together up here.”
This all-encompassing job requires a working knowledge of every flight line and maintenance function, petroleum, oil, and lubricants; avionics, electric shop, hydraulics, Civil Engineer Squadron, the alert docks, life support, operations, disaster preparedness, security forces, knowing which outside agencies to call on for emergencies, as well as calling in the daily statuses to Guard Bureau.
“We dispatch people out for jobs. This is done through the shops calling us each morning to let us know how many people they have available for dispatch,” said Moore. “Everyone wants everything now, and we coordinate with the Maintenance, Plans and Scheduling production superintendent to get it done.”
“There is an incredible amount of responsibility,” said Tech. Sgt. Joe Mawhinney, controller, MOC. “If you don't communicate with people then everything stops right here.”
But that’s just part of their job, what happens when things turn ugly?
“For us, September 11th just reinforced everything that we had been training for,” said Miller.
“All of our personnel are trained for contingency - real world or exercise,” said Moore. “The people who work up here know the ins and outs of their shops so that when they come up here, they get a bigger picture of the whole operation - the wing perspective.”
“The people here are very conscientious and accepting of change,” said Mawhinney. “They demand perfection.
| Date Taken: | 06.12.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.12.2025 12:50 |
| Story ID: | 500453 |
| Location: | ATLANTIC CITY AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, NEW JERSEY, US |
| Web Views: | 34 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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Maintenance
