DVIDS Hub works best with JavaScript enabled

Witchdoctors break records

Photo By Benjamin Roberts | Thornton1 - Spc. Marcus Thornton, an armament specialist with 1st Battalion, 10th...... read more read more

MOSUL, IRAQ

07.05.2006

Courtesy Story

101st Combat Aviation Brigade

When 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment arrived at Mosul Air Field nearly a year ago, their maintenance area was an empty aircraft parking ramp.

Together, with the help of a crew of Soldiers from the 96th Aviation Support Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, the Soldiers of Company D, 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, created a large maintenance area. They set up two maintenance tents, moved in all their tools, and were able to relocate unused buildings from throughout the airfield to use in their new home. Since that time, they have established some new standards in fast, quality maintenance work.

"New TBO requirements were recently established for Kiowa Warrior maintenance," Lt. Col. Doug Ziemer explained. "TBO stands for, Time Between Overhaul, meaning the time an aircraft can fly before certain components on the aircraft are replaced or undergo maintenance. The engineers determined that combat maneuvering flight places a higher demand on aircraft components, so the time between overhauls should be decreased. What that means to us is that these Soldiers have to conduct more maintenance for every hour flown"

The new time limits did not faze the 1-10 maintenance crew. In fact, they adjusted in record time, becoming the first Kiowa maintenance team to finish required maintenance under the newly-emplaced TBO requirements. Ziemer said the team finished in about 75-percent of the allotted time, with all work completed to standard. For this accomplishment, the many members of the maintenance team received Army Achievement Medals.

Pfc. Joshua Boyle, Company D "Witchdoctors", 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment, is a Kiowa Warrior crew chief responsible for performing general maintenance on the Battalion's helicopters. He explained some of the many components changed during routine overhauls.

"We change the restraint springs, restraint spring fittings, side beams, transverse beams, quarter mounts, and engines," he said. It's a lot of work, but "I like learning and getting my hands dirty."

Boyle also said that instead of breaking down the entire aircraft all at once during a phase maintenance that may last two or more weeks as in the Blackhawk, Apache and Chinook helicopters, Kiowa Warriors undergo a Progressive Phase of Maintenance (PPM). Every 40 hours they inspect various components so that by the time they have completed all 15 PPMs they have gone through the entire aircraft without taking it out of the fight for extended periods of time.

Engines, which are made by Rolls" Royce, are swapped out after every 1500 flight hours. The mechanics said they have replaced a number of engines during this deployment " normally completing the process in a day to a day and a half, they said.

A combination of mechanics work on the helicopters, including the crew chiefs, specialized engine, hydraulics, avionics, and transmission mechanics. They work together as a team, with the crew chiefs performing the general maintenance and the other mechanics focusing on their particular areas of expertise. They work on maintenance shifts around the clock, seven days a week.

"It's a fun job," Spc. Anthony Grieve, a Witchdoctor mechanic from Syracuse, New York, said. "We do a lot of the same things, big and little jobs, but every day is different."

The Soldiers have also been busy over at the Forward Arming and Refueling Point, where aircraft are armed and refueled.

"We pump 10 to 15,000 gallons of fuel a day," Spc. Willie Jackson, Company E, 1st Battalion, 10th Aviation Regiment. "We fuel everything that lands at Mosul Air Field " Chinooks, Kiowa Warriors constantly, Apaches, and all fixed wing aircraft that come in here like the U.S. Army's Sherpa as well as a number of different Russian built airplanes."

Soldiers man the six-point FARP in three eight-hour shifts running around the clock.

"We'll be in here playing a video game or hanging out, but we can hear them come in and feel our building shake, or they'll call when they're about 20 minutes out," Jackson said. "There's really good communication between the pilots and us. Either way, by the time they get here we'll already be outside."

He and Spc. Richard Gales, of Hammond, Louisiana said they enjoy responding to a constant flow of aircraft into the FARP and hot refueling them, which means while the aircraft engines are running.

"It's the rush of responding to everything coming in that I enjoy," Gales said.

"You've got to be alert, the birds are coming," Jackson said. The Soldiers estimate that they have pumped around 800,000 gallons of fuel so far this deployment.

Also at the FARP, Soldiers arm the Battalion's Kiowa Warriors and other aircraft. The armament specialists split time between loading ammunition in the FARP and working on the Kiowa's weapons and avionics systems in the hangers.

"I like working at both locations about the same," Spc. Frank Mix said. "When you get tired of working at the FARP, working in the hangers is a completely different story."

Mix said they load about 35,000 rounds a week. They arm .50 caliber machine gun rounds, hellfire missiles, and 2.75 inch rockets.

"I remember loading 37 rockets, three hellfire missiles and over 1,000 rounds of .50 Cal. on Christmas," Mix said. "As far as the FARP goes, it's like a NASCAR pit crew, we'll time ourselves as to how fast we are, because there are times where you have troops in contact and you know lives depend on what you do."

The training to become an armament specialist is no easy chore, either, Spc. Marcus Thornton, from Concorde, N.C., said. He said it spans 33 weeks and requires Soldiers to have an in-depth knowledge of the electronics and weapons on a Kiowa.

"If it's not the engine or the airframe, it's us," Thornton said. When ask what he thought of his Battalion's FARP crew, Ziemer said, "I'm exceptionally proud of them. They built and run the best FARP in Iraq. Granted, I'm biased in my opinion, but I've heard the same comment from pilots and senior leaders from outside the Battalion."