UNDISCLOSED LOCATION - You get into your sweet ride, kick back the seat, roll down the window and stick your arm out – but this isn’t your sweet ride, it’s the Air Force’s, and with the aging of the fleet and the desert heat, it takes a team of skilled experts to keep the wheels turning at the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing.
With a crew of less than 50 airmen maintaining and managing close to 900 vehicles, keeping the wheels on the road is not an easy task for the 380th Air Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron vehicle maintenance shop.
One way you can help ease the workload for the shop is to do the required inspections before driving. These can help identify small issues before they become major problems.
“Take a couple extra minutes every day to walk around your vehicle, check it out thoroughly, check the oil, watch your surroundings and use spotters,” said Senior Master Sgt. Todd Stout, 380 ELRS vehicle management flight chief, deployed from Dover Air Force Base, Delaware. “Treat that vehicle just like you would your own car. You wouldn’t overlook something on your own car, and it should be the same way with these because we all require them for our jobs.”
Long days are easily filled by the countless hours of work to be done on an average of 500 vehicles per month. Proper care for vehicles is one way to minimize unnecessary maintenance actions.
“Our airmen are hard workers,” Stout said. “They’re always jobbing. They’re out in the elements doing mobile calls. We have a very large fleet here, so they’re always working.”
Being a vehicle mechanic is a career in which there is an unending opportunity to become better at your craft.
“My favorite part of the job is the people,” he said. “I was the only one who came from Dover, so I get to work with about 40 other guys from a bunch of different bases, with different perspectives, and you always learn from that.”