The C-130 Hercules has been doing some heavy lifting on the front lines in Southwest Asia. Recently, a group of maintainers with the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron’s structural repair shop performed a month of repairs and maintenance at a forward location on a C-130 from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, that suffered structural damage when a tire blew. The Hercules was flown from Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, to the healing hands of the 379th EMS for repairs to its gear door. The team ordered replacements for some damaged parts and made others, returning the Herc to duty without a stateside visit.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...