News

Flying crew chief fortifies total force

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Madelyn McCullough
  • 446th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-McChord, Wash. --  The 2016 Unit Effectiveness Inspection revealed that the 446th Airlift ‘Rainier’ Wing implements benchmark improvements.

With ongoing projects like overhauling the weapons safety program management to revamping to being a test wing to process financial travel vouchers in house, this comes as no surprise. However, it doesn’t stop there.

The 446th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron was recognized in the 2016 UEI for successfully implementing a flying crew chief (FCC) program and fortifying the total force initiative (TFI) here. Flying crew chiefs are aircraft mechanics with a breadth of knowledge about all aircraft system who fly missions with aircrew. Their job is to figure out how to get the aircraft off the ground if anything breaks down, whether by fixing it themselves or knowing which specialist or part to call in.

Since its inception, 11 volunteers have joined the FCC program. These Citizen Airmen have supported 44 missions, 21 active and 23 Reserve. Together they have flown more than 973 hours to move nearly 1,500 passengers and more than 3.4 million pounds of cargo to areas all over the world.

An Air Force Reserve Command Initiative that started in October 2015, the program began as a trial for three Reserve units including the Rainier Wing. It has now gained traction as an integral part of the wing’s role in maintaining C-17 aircraft during worldwide flying operations and enriching the TFI relationship with the 62nd Airlift Wing.

“We’ve received a lot of feedback from not only Rainier Wing flying squadrons, but also the 62nd AW aircrew members,” said Chief Master Sgt. Daniel Morris, 446th Maintenance Group superintendent. “When an FCC flies a mission, it doesn’t matter whether they’re active or Reserve. Our guys have been anywhere and everywhere around the world just like our air crews have.”

The Rainier Wing’s FCC program allows the Reserve crew chiefs to be more involved in flying operations, providing extra manpower and taking some of the weight off active duty FCC’s.

“Our total force integration is phenomenal,” said Master Sgt. Jeffery Barsaloux, 446th AMXS production supervisor. “I look at the 446th and 62nd added together and make a joke of it as the 508th TFI.”

Barsaloux and Morris have a few goals in mind for the program.

“Our goal right now is to double our number of missions supported and incorporate all the MXG members including the 446th Maintenance Squadron and traditional Reservists,” Barsaloux said. “Our end state goal is getting at least 15 qualified FCCs.”

Since Col. Kirk Peddicord, 446th MXG commander, played a major role in allowing the program to come into existence and is planning on retiring next year, Morris plans to do his best to carry it on.

“Back in the day, I was a crew chief on the flight line and I used to go out as a [Mission Essential Personnel] for about two or three years and then it stopped,” Morris said. “So I can related to people out there now because I enjoyed it so much. I have a passion for being a crew chief having lived that back on the C-141s and early in the 2000s when we first got C-17s.”

In the UEI, the Rainier Wing was also rated as highly effective under the major graded area of Improving the Unit, which is the highest rating a wing can achieve for any graded area.