CHARLESTON AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. –
Air Mobility Command recently announced that it selected Charleston AFB's maintenance groups as the 2008 AMC nominee for the Air Force Clements McMullen Memorial Daedalian Weapon System Maintenance Trophy Award.
For the second time in three years, the work of the men and women of the 437th and 315th Maintenance Groups has earned them this honor. For this award, each AMC MXG highlighted accomplishments in four major categories: mission accomplishments, effective use of maintenance resources, innovative management actions, and personnel quality of life programs.
"From launching missions around the world, to training and maintaining at home station, the accomplishments of the 437 and 315 MXG maintainers will surely take us far as we get ready to compete for this hard-earned trophy at the Air Force level," said Col. Tammy Livingood, 437 MXG commander.
Active-duty and reserve Airmen generated more than 18,000 worldwide C-17 departures while limiting maintenance-related departure delays to only 4 percent. Of these missions, more than 3,000 were directly supported by flying crew chiefs who accumulated more than 12,000 days "on the road." The active and associate reserve team also generated more than 9,000 missions in support of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom. Although deployed throughout U.S. Central Command, many of these are missions currently supported from one deployed location by approximately 90 Charleston AFB maintainers at what is otherwise known as "Charleston East."
Team Charleston showcased its rapid global mobility capabilities over the Palmetto state by generating a 15-ship mass launch in 2007, resulting in an on-time departure every 30 seconds.
They also helped the wing earn an "excellent" operational readiness inspection rating. Upon notification, the maintainers got the wing "out the door" by generating 16 of 16 fully mission-capable C-17s, followed by demonstration of their ability to survive and operate in a chemical and biological warfare environment. The AMC Inspector General team was so impressed with Team Charleston, they admitted to giving more "kudos" than any other AMC wing.
As if launching C-17s on-time alone isn't enough, it's the "behind-the-scenes" work that really makes Charleston's maintenance No. 1. The base's C-17 home station check maintainers utilized Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century skills by cutting 16 hours from each of the approximately 150 aircraft inspected, making available an additional 1,500 flight hours for the wing's mission. Additionally, the flightline tool kit section reduced tool checkout times by reducing 95 tool boxes into 75 color-coded, skill-specific tool boxes. This initiative not only reduced the time it takes to check out tools, but more importantly it increased the amount of time they actually spend fixing airplanes.
When not fixing airplanes, ground equipment or components, the maintainers are busy training and ensuring high quality performance. The C-17 Maintenance Training Flight executed more than 380 courses and graduated approximately 1,300 mechanics -- the highest output in AMC. The quality assurance section also enforced strict maintenance discipline and helped keep the 437 MXG quality pass rate at 93 percent. By teaming with Boeing partners, QA developed a "VECTOR" program to track engineering dispositions and provide worldwide Web visibility to the entire C-17 community.
Knowing that a higher quality of life would lead to higher quality maintenance, they executed more than $5 million in facility enhancement, maintenance and repair projects. Making the families of deployed maintainers a priority as well, the MXGs also have a thriving Phoenix Spouse Program, benchmarked by both the 437th and 315th Airlift Wings and AMC.