Heavy metal: 442nd Maintenance Squadron troops keep A-10s in shape

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. William Huntington
  • 442nd Fighter Wing public affairs
Tucked away in the southwest corner of the 442nd Fighter Wing's five-bay hangar, Airmen from the 442nd Maintenance Squadron's aircraft metals technology and structural maintenance shops toil to ensure the wing's A-10s keep their "beautiful" shape and structural integrity.

With "attention to detail" more of a daily commandment than a trite phrase to be inserted in an enlisted performance report, these troops are an important reason why 442nd aircraft can be counted as the best maintained, and best looking, A-10s in the Air Force.

Senior Master Sgt. Mark Mock, 442nd MXS, Fabrication Flight chief, has responsibility over the two shops and he knows exactly the kind of efforts expended by the reservists in both of them.

"A lot of people have said our jets look nice," Sergeant Mock said. "What they don't realize is there a lot of things that go into making them that way."

He feels the aircraft put off a professional image that is a reflection of those that maintain them. It's an image that comes from that attention to detail and he offers something seemingly insignificant as a case in point from the structures shop.

"(They) paint screws," Sergeant Mock said. "After the screws are put in a holder, they paint the heads of them so that when the screws are installed on our planes, the screw heads are gray and not silver. They look a lot nicer."

The same thing is done for any other part the shop sends out to be placed on the aircraft. 

When the 442nd deploys elsewhere with another A-10 unit, as it recently did in Afghanistan, it's something their counterparts in other wings have been heard to marvel about.

The structural maintenance shop handles anything on the aircraft made of metal, fiberglass or composite material. Panels, covers, a variety of tubing and other materials both integral and incidental to the aircraft structure make up the world of the structures shop.

"Whether the aircraft takes a bird strike, a ding or just normal wear-and-tear, they take care of it," Sergeant Mock said about the "Structures Shop."

Seventeen Structures troops, Air Reserve Technicians and traditional reservists, fill the ranks of the shop and are led by Master Sgt. Brian Bass, an ART.

According to Sergeant Mock, the Structures troops are a mechanically-inclined group, able to look at a component, visualize how to take it apart and then put it back together again.

After completing a 16-week technical school, new shop members are trained to face a daunting list of tasks required of each of them to be fully qualified in their career field.

The aircraft metals technology shop, known among the maintainers as M-Tech, focuses on the air frame repairing aircraft components when they break, often manufacturing items such as brackets and bushings, which are no longer available from other sources. 

On the unit training assembly weekend, Air Reserve Technician Master Sgt. Larry Randolph keeps the M-Tech machinery and troops working and, during the week, he is assisted by Tech. Sgt. Calvin Carter, another ART.

Replacing damaged fasteners, repairing threaded inserts, welding certain engine parts and even manufacturing or repairing maintenance support equipment, such as the myriad stands all 442nd maintainers use, are standard fare for these metals technologists.

The reservists also manufacture special tools and other maintenance aids specific to the A-10. A project currently occupying M-Tech is the creation of a fixture for replacing canopies on A-10s.

"The canopy fixture is built so that when you pull the canopy you can then change the glass," Sergeant Carter said. "It holds the back bow at the right angle ... 81 degrees and 30 minutes ... for there to be an accurate seal (to keep the aircraft pressurized)."

M-Tech's "toolbox" includes special equipment such as the plasma cutter, which cuts through some metals like butter; TIG and MIG - Tungsten Inert Gas and Metallic Inert Gas - welders, each designed to weld metals and leave minimal impurities, a must for aircraft; machine lathes, where tolerances are measured with a micrometer; and a variety of other specialty tools needed to work on the wing's A-10s.

Besides having a good head for algebra and trigonometry and also attending a lengthy technical school, the metals technicians need to be able to read machine drawings and quickly visualize how things are supposed to fit together.

"Being a visionary is very important," Sergeant Carter said. "It's important to be able to look at a drawing and then at a blank piece of metal and have a vision of a finished product ... to be able to see the end."