2008-Present
U.S. Air Force, 2T1X1, Vehicle Operations
I've was stationed at Little Rock AFB and not reside at MacDill AFB. I've done convoys through Iraq, base support at Ali Al Saleem, Kuwait, and CMRE/FOB hopping in Afghanistan. 2 years left of service before I hang up my hat and focus on finishing my education and family more.

Canadian solder killed at war memorial returns home
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-...illo-goes-home

USAF
1976-1980
Aircraft Crew Chief
318th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (T-33, F-106, F-15)
Aerospace Defense Command (no longer exists)

Pretty sure I have a pic of a 318th Dart that landed in CFB Comox (in BC)when I was posted there in 79. The only reason it sticks out in my old, failing memory is that it landed because it was low on fuel and actually ran out taxiing to the fueling area.

Navy
2004-current
Supply Officer, LT
Last tour: USS John C. Stennis

I'm an airframer on KC-130Ts in the Navy, basically the same thing as you except a little more broad. Flight controls, landing gear, hydraulics, composites, sheet metal, assist a good bit with the engine mechs as well.

Nice! The (ch)air force has way too many aircraft maintenance career fields in my opinion, I wish they cut more things out to the crew chief (Aerospace Maintenance - the official title). But at the same time, our back shops - sheet metal - metals tech - hydraulics... blah blah blah can all jump around bases to different airframes without retraining so that makes them more useful for our large array of different aircraft. I can get cut trained on other maintenance career fields, but it's always a secondary and is never taken into consideration for anything more than just "bitch work" so to speak. So unless we're pursuing aerospace jobs on the outside most of us stay away from it lol.

As a flightline crew chief we get engine run qual'd and the like, but the back shop where I am at is a lot more intricate with mainly the flight controls and landing gear and all the cables and crap that makes it all happen. It's very interesting, do you ever get to dive that far into it, rigging etc? Just wait until you get on a J model, the flight deck is like something out of star trek compared to the legacy 130's! I work on the AC-130H's here too now that I'm backshop. Going between the 2 models it's crazy how far this airframe has come

The 'J' models are pretty fuckin sweet! I have been on a few Marine J models.

We do all the rigging for the flight controls, throttles, props, flaps, brakes, etc. We get ground turn qual'd, which is what you guys call engine run I guess.

In the Navy we have 3 maintenance levels [operational, intermediate, depot]. I'm at operational right now, in the past I was at intermediate level - which is simliar to your guys' backshop.. except a little more distanced. It's not actually attached to the squadron and generally supports all the squadrons on base (multiple platforms), I was a welder there mostly. Also dealt with NDT inspections, broke into hydraulics more (rebuilt pumps, struts, etc), etc. We have more broad jobs due to the nature of the Navy - on a ship you are limited to the number of people you can have so "do more with less" is essentially how it goes. Although, C-130s don't exactly go on carriers so it's kind of a moot point there.

I remember going to get some hyd tubing from the Air Force once; you guys always have so much more crap and dealing with supply in the Navy is worse than getting your teeth pulled (no offense @solus, I see you're a supply officer :D) and I went to the hydraulics shop only to find out that you guys have a seperate sheet metal shop that deals with the tubing.. I was like "wtf?" I am used to just one set of guys doing most everything.. not it being divied up between 10+ different shops, lol.

Sounds about right, it's like musical chairs figuring out who does what maintenance wise sometimes here, it's a headache. Our back shop (crew chief) is still dedicated to 130's specifically. I wish we had welding under our belts. But that's fabrication flight. Who shares a work area with sheet metal.. so when you walk in there you have to figure out who you're talking to first.. nightmare... Although the wheel and tire we do as a side job we cover all aircraft on base, and our crash recovery extends to every and any airframe - even a local jurisdiction to help with civilian aircraft. If we had another airframe that required AR here the personnel would probably share a shop with us, but only work on their airframe.

I like meeting other services maintainers and sharing complaints about all the things we do wrong, and wishing we had some of eachothers structure. I worked with a Marine (I would say prior but once a Marine always a Marine), she was a lockheed contractor here and she'd tell us about how stupid some of the things we have to do are. And then tell us how awesome we had it for other stuff.

That's pretty much every job in every branch. Pros n cons to each, none of them have it quite figured out haha. FWIW, Marines operate the same as the Navy in regards to aviation (same pubs - T.O.s for you guys). In fact, most of our "back shops" (intermediate maintenance) are joint commands with Navy and Marines.
My last command was Navy and Marines maintenance with Navy, Air Force, and civilian supply.. what a cluster fuck that was!

We deal with crash recovery as well, we call it emergency reclamation. Although the overall program is ran by airframers (my shop), it is essentially an all-hands effort. If something happens, each shop has specific procedures for recovery and/or destruction of various equipment.

Wow yeah that sounds like Russian roulette.. don't get me started on supply.. lol. Had a rather large argument with a guy in BAF last year. Not sure what your term is for an aircraft accepted by flight crew, then they find a discrepancy with it before leaving that can affect theie mission- but we call it a "red ball". Well we had a red ball and long story short, he (supply) told me to drive to the other side of base to pick up the part if I needed it so quickly. It sucked because he was higher ranking than me, and he didn't like the way I replied to that. But I told him he needed to get off his ass and do his damn job, this isn't home station and that the plane needed to get in the air 20 minutes ago (not to disclose info but it was an alert mission) facebook can wait and while he is driving to get the part I can be attending to the one causing the issues. They seem so lazy, but of course I don't understand their job and they probably feel the same way about me and my job. But sense of urgency sheesh..!

Being apologized to by the same guy that chewed you out is kind of satisfying though

We don't really have issues with aircraft being accepted and then something popping up. If it does, somebody's gettin their **** slapped. But, we mostly just haul cargo (ya, refueler c-130 set up for cargo..) so not a whole lot of mission equipment to really break. The dual rails are what they are, and the winch doesn't really break much. If there are issues bigger than that, well, ...

I didn't understand supply either, so I went and learned their job for a while.. to be honest most of the time it's not really "them" and it's more the systems (ERP.. ugh) and processes in place. Still annoying as fuck though. The benefit of learning the system as a maintainer is huge though.. you can tell when they are being lazy and blowing you off. I've had instances where we NEEDED parts, and they told us the closest assets were across the country. I looked into it, found it much closer, and they were just being lazy and didn't want to make some phone calls to release the parts from a different branch (marines usually - they hog all the parts!).
Although, like everything there are those like you said that just have no sense of urgency.. but I work with a supply guy now who actually comes out and works on the birds with us even, just to get an understanding of where the parts are going and why etc.

US Army - Since 1991, still going. Currently stuck in Afghanistan of all places. ...I'm getting tired of sand.

Al 6 of our Aircraft Techs do most aspects of all the work on all 20 of our aircraft I am sure!
Spare parts? Ebay or grab them off the junker out back!