WEBVTT

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Air Force Base , home of the Fighting

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55th and several variants of its

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aircraft in their inventory . The men

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and women who fly and operate these

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planes are responsible for our nation's

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intelligence , surveillance , and

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reconnaissance missions , supporting

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our national leadership and war

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fighters anytime , any place , as

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indicated by their tail numbers , the

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aircraft were built and put in the

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service in the early 1960s . Where most

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people would assume these planes are

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past their prime and no longer safe to

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fly , the personnel in the fifty-fifth

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Aircraft Maintenance squadron work to

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make sure these aircraft keep flying

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safely , so these crews can continue to

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monitor the skies .

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The secret of keeping our fleet aloft

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is a dedicated team of airmen

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inspecting , repairing and testing

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these planes from the wings and landing

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gear to the electronic systems .

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Hi , my name is Staff Sergeant Oriaga .

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Today we're doing an aircraft wash .

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Let's get to it . We're here because

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we're washing an airplane . It allows

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us to better identify any corrosion

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that might have built up over the

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flying period . Its different shops

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coming together , allowing us to use

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soap , water , brushes , trying to get

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all the dirt off from the plane so that

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we can better inspect it . So the first

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thing we do is we give it a good rinse

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that way we can get all the surface

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level grime and dirt off . After that

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we soap it down , allowing the soap to

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do its job . Once the soap does its job ,

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we scrub it off , wipe it off , do

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whatever it needs , depending on how

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hard it is on there . Sometimes grease

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burns itself onto a component , so it

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takes a little more than just a brush .

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It might actually need high pressure

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water to get it off . It makes it tick

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because if we can't identify any

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corrosion on the jet and we start

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sending it up in the air , the minute

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it comes down , all that stress can go

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into the corroded areas and begin to

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crack the metal , allowing for unsafe

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landings . So by washing . finding any

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corrosion and fixing it , we make the

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jet safer to fly . It's probably one of

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the hardest things maintainers have to

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do , but it's something that we take

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pride in because whenever we see the

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airplane drive , knowing that it's

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sparkling clean , it just gives us some

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better help knowing that it's safer .