Air Mobility Command has started a new course at Travis AFB, Calif., which should produce more airmen able to perform basic maintenance on the service’s KC-10 aerial refueling aircraft operating in the Pacific region. The first six airmen—from Hickam AFB, Hawaii, and Kadena AB, Japan—began the 30-day course last week at Travis. After they graduate, they will be the first in-theater maintainers trained to recover the aircraft and handle 79 routine maintenance tasks. Previously, KC-10 flying crew chiefs had to handle all such work and that meant lost man-hours and scheduling inefficiency.
Questioned by lawmakers on the state of the Air Force's maintenance depots, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. "Jim" Slife said April 30 that the service is investing in IT and data infrastructure to better sustain new software-intensive platforms—while acknowledging that there is still work to be done to…