Vehicle maintenance: keeping 'em ready to roll

July 4, 1997
Originally published by Fairchild Connection (Fairchild AFB, WA)

At the vehicle maintenance flight of the 92nd Transportation Squadron, the mission is to keep Air Force vehicles and othe government carriers in top shape and ready to roll. CMSgt. Michael Gendron explained his team's goals while supervising his airmen. "We work general purpose vehicles, base maintenance, support vehicles for the flight line, and we also service refuelers and fire department trucks," Gendron said, noting that his team is in charge of approximately 650 vehicles, some of which are tasked from units elsewhere.

"If somebody has a vehicle they can't service themselves, and it requires more maintenance than they can handle, they send it to us. Ninety percent of the work is done right in the shop," Gendron said.

Forty-three mechanics and technicians work on the shop's floor, according to Gendron. Thity-three of those are military personnel, while the rest comprise civilians.

"There has been a big change in manpower recently, so about 60 percent of the personnel that do the majority of the work are straight out of tech school," Gendron said, noting that technical training is done at Ft. Wahime, Calif. Training recently moved there from Randolph AFB, Texas six months ago.

"We've got a lot of new people in just this week," Gendron said. "We're going to be depending on them more than we have been."

Another feature of the vehicle maintenance flight is the mobile maintenance truck, which can assist customers on problems such as emergency jump starts or stalls. Any assistance that requires less than two hours maintenance can be done using the truck. "We usually perform this in the field," Gendron said.

Gendron is also starting a new policy on vehicles that come into service. "Instead of hunting down all our vehicles that we are assigned to for periodic checks, we're going to have an appointment system.

"It will work out well, because we'll have more scheduled work and tasks to do, even for routine maintenance oil changes. It'll work out well for everybody."

Flight chief Warren Greenwood said he is pleased with the government-operated parts store, which the team began doing business with in January.

"All our government vehicles that we're in charge of have to be kept in safe and serviceable condition and GOPARS helps us do that," Greenwood said. "We've been quite successful with this new operation. We now can purchase parts at better prices, parts in a more timely manner, and we have more flexibility on where to purchase the parts.

"It gives us more options at a better price. We can shop around and find a part a lot easier using this system," Greenwood said. "It gives us the quality we're looking for."