Comments on: Flightdeck Friday – Maintainers http://steeljawscribe.com/2007/06/21/flightdeck-friday-maintainers Looking for clues at the scene of the crime Mon, 14 May 2012 13:46:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Albany Rifles http://steeljawscribe.com/2007/06/21/flightdeck-friday-maintainers/comment-page-1#comment-106 Albany Rifles Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:16:45 +0000 http://steeljawscribe.com/2007/06/21/flightdeck-friday-maintainers/#comment-106 My experience was as a mechanized infantry officer. I became a company XO in 1983 of an M113 equipped rifle company in Germany. They company had received new (i.e. rebuilt) M113A2s the previous year. We went on a field problem when I get the word that one of the company tracks was done. My recovery team pulled it into the maintenance yard. They popped the panels and the engine compartment was sprayed with oil. Come to find out the oil lines had come out of the oil cooler…which was “conveniently” located UNDER the engine block. They had to pull the engine to get at it…something which entailed unbolting the armor on the front and lifting it up. No problem, the recovery vehicle crew got to work. About 45 minutes later we got the word 2 more tracks were down. Turned out to be the same problem. Over the next 37 hours 9 tracks would go down for the same thing. Turned out the oil coolers which were installed during the depot rebuilt had paper o-rings! Every one of the tracks was +/- 5 hours of 1,000 hours of service since rebuilt. My 7 mechanics pulled and replaced 9 engines in 37 hours in the field with no hardstand. I was even turning wrenches by the end to help out. At the end of this I had to deliver the resupply fuel/food/water to my company so I left. I returned to the maint site about 3 hours later just as the sun came up…it looked like Jonestown! Guys had dropped dead asleep all around. As I got out of my jeep I saw one mechanic had fallen asleep across the open hatch of the recovery vehicle…it hurt to look at him. As I walked past him he lifted his head and said to me “Hey sir, go tell the grunts to break something. We’re bored!” As a hardcore Infantry officer I had not thought that much about all of the support personnel. I guarantee you my opinion changed dramatically that day. Incredible bunch of guys. My experience was as a mechanized infantry officer. I became a company XO in 1983 of an M113 equipped rifle company in Germany. They company had received new (i.e. rebuilt) M113A2s the previous year. We went on a field problem when I get the word that one of the company tracks was done. My recovery team pulled it into the maintenance yard. They popped the panels and the engine compartment was sprayed with oil. Come to find out the oil lines had come out of the oil cooler…which was “conveniently” located UNDER the engine block. They had to pull the engine to get at it…something which entailed unbolting the armor on the front and lifting it up. No problem, the recovery vehicle crew got to work. About 45 minutes later we got the word 2 more tracks were down. Turned out to be the same problem. Over the next 37 hours 9 tracks would go down for the same thing. Turned out the oil coolers which were installed during the depot rebuilt had paper o-rings! Every one of the tracks was +/- 5 hours of 1,000 hours of service since rebuilt.

My 7 mechanics pulled and replaced 9 engines in 37 hours in the field with no hardstand. I was even turning wrenches by the end to help out. At the end of this I had to deliver the resupply fuel/food/water to my company so I left. I returned to the maint site about 3 hours later just as the sun came up…it looked like Jonestown! Guys had dropped dead asleep all around. As I got out of my jeep I saw one mechanic had fallen asleep across the open hatch of the recovery vehicle…it hurt to look at him. As I walked past him he lifted his head and said to me “Hey sir, go tell the grunts to break something. We’re bored!”

As a hardcore Infantry officer I had not thought that much about all of the support personnel. I guarantee you my opinion changed dramatically that day.

Incredible bunch of guys.

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]]> By: CDR. A. G. Alexander USN (Ret) http://steeljawscribe.com/2007/06/21/flightdeck-friday-maintainers/comment-page-1#comment-98 CDR. A. G. Alexander USN (Ret) Sat, 23 Jun 2007 19:12:28 +0000 http://steeljawscribe.com/2007/06/21/flightdeck-friday-maintainers/#comment-98 Same here. I started in Maintenance as as Ensign, ended up as A CDR and AMO of VO-67. It was a fantastic career. Being able to work with some of the most fantastic people who keep our aircraft in the air is unbelievable. Give a Sailor a job that other people say they can not repair and they will get it done. They will fix the items that the Engineers call Fail Safe and they will "Fix" the Fail Safe system when it is dead. Same here. I started in Maintenance as as Ensign, ended up as A CDR and AMO of VO-67. It was a fantastic career. Being able to work with some of the most fantastic people who keep our aircraft in the air is unbelievable. Give a Sailor a job that other people say they can not repair and they will get it done. They will fix the items that the Engineers call Fail Safe and they will “Fix” the Fail Safe system when it is dead.

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