Soldiers from 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade inspect aircraft during phase maintenance Sept. 27 at Hunter Army Airfield.
Phase maintenance officially started in August after the Marne Air Soldiers returned from Afghanistan.
“Phase maintenance is the disassemble and inspection of an aircraft,” said Chief Warrant Officer 2 John Jones, an Aviation Maintenance Technician for Company B, 603rd Aviation Support Battalion. “We check the condition of different portions of the aircraft and components to ensure the aircraft are safe to continue flying.”
Jones and his aircraft maintainers are dedicated to the mission of maintenance and the importance to keep the aircraft in safe working condition.
“It is a preemptive examination to foresee and fix any problems in our aircraft before mission occurs,” said Jones. “The preventive maintenance is to prevent catastrophic failure our aircraft.”
Jones and his maintainers have serviced and inspected a number of aircraft from UH-60 Blackhawks, CH-47 Chinooks, and AH-64 Apache helicopters. These Marne Air Soldiers take pride being aircraft mechanics.
“There are six sections that we are inspecting on the aircraft and we are looking for bent rods, rusted bolts and nuts; anything that looks out of place to our trained eye we fix and replace,” said Spc. Trever Johnson, a Blackhawk repairer for Company B., 603rd Aviation Support Battalion. “You can tell when other aircraft mechanics take pride in their job from the internal examination we conduct on the aircraft.”
Johnson has been in the Army for three years, not only is he dedicated to the mission but to every Blackhawk he has inspected to keep the aircraft and the pilots safe.
“These aircraft are scientifically are not supposed to fly but we beat the air into submission,” said Johnson. “It is up to us as aircraft mechanic to scrutinize every section of the aircraft because all it takes one cotter-pin dislodgment for our aircraft to go down.”
Marne Air Soldiers continue to inspect and conduct phase maintenance on their aircraft as they get ready to assume the Army’s Defense Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Response Force (DCRF) mission November 1.