AGS Red Flight: Keeping 92nd ARW flying high

1997
Originally published by Fairchild Connection (Fairchild AFB, WA)

Out on the flightline, the caretaking procedures are always priority number one for the 92nd Aircraft Generation Squadron Red Flight.

From the morning roll call and briefing in the 98th Air Refueling Squadron building, the team has to be ready for anything. TSgt. Alan Bowlin, aircraft expediter for the flight, said that the crew's main function is to perform flightline maintenance as required, with launch and recovery missions, service and inspections and coordinated maintenance. "We do what we have to do to keep the aircraft flying," Bowlin said.

During the week, the 92nd AGS is a 24-hour operation, with three shifts. After the initial formation, the technicians on shift get their tools and head out to work in a truck to the flightline, where they are assigned to specific jobs. Keeping a list of the required tasks for each aircraft, Bowlin gives instructions on assignments as he drives the crew chiefs to their appointed places.

"We help flight crews launch and take off, and we also help do pre-flight checks," Bowlin said. "We assist the crew in visually checking the aircraft."

1st Lt. John Fountain, flight commander, said that being in the 92nd AGS is a demanding challenge. "There is quite a variety of work required by these guys," he said. "They have to do a good job, and they have to work hard in all types of weather conditions and environments. We also get tasked out on numerous deployments."

Bowlin said, "We're responsible for the care and feeding of about 12 aircraft, and every shift change, we get a status report on all the planes we're responsible to maintain. Part of our flying schedule means that we have to follow those guidelines and stick to the flying schedule they give us each week."

He added, "We try to give the wing the best product, and we are part of that mission."

Among the more detailed inspections maintenance performs is a home station check, an inspection that is done every 60 days. It involves making checks on different components that are not part of the usual routine. "Basically, we look at parts that we don't normally look at on a daily basis," Bowlin said.

"It's more involved than the daily inspections we do in order to fly, because it takes more equipment to do an HSC than a daily launch preparation," he added. The whole procedure usually takes four hours.

Fountain said that the aircraft of the 92nd AGS perform many conventional refueling missions, cargo missions and mobility exercises.

"Due to a drop-off in the amount of aircraft types, our 135s foresee picking up a lot of the additional work," he said. "The old C-141s will be phased out soon."

Among the other missions the crew participates in are the single integration operational plans for bomber support and refueling, SR-71 mission refueling, and Tanker Airlift Control Center missions brought down from Air Mobility Command headquarters located at Scott AFB, Ill.

"As you can see, we perform quite a varied mission," Fountain said. "We have to have the capability to make sure the planes are ready to be launched and do what the mission calls them to do. If it wasn't for these maintainers, nothing would get off the ramp. We have a lot of hard workers, and they deserve a lot of credit for what they do."