Insurance providers -- ensuring a safe return

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Leo Brown
  • 442nd Fighter Wing public affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  A good life insurance policy gives great peace of mind and providing such insurance is the job of the 303rd Fighter Squadron’s Life Support shop.

“Basically, our job is to get (pilots) to the ground safely if they have to eject and then get them home,” said Senior Master Sgt. Joe O’Daniel, life support superintendent. “Our motto is, ‘Your life is our business.’ We’re like insurance. Sometimes, people relate it to that and think you’re not really needed, but you are. You have to have it. Our pilots here really respect us. We have a good rapport with the pilots. We’re the last people they see before they step to their jets.”

The eight-man shop has drawn rave reviews from its customers, evidenced by Maj. John Rogler, 303rd Fighter Squadron pilot.

“I can say this is the best run (life support shop) I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Just down to the quality of where we hang our equipment, the professionalism, the cleanliness. I’ve never had anything not work. Stuff just doesn’t fail.”

“There’s zero tolerance in (making errors),” said Tech. Sgt. Rob Safley, life support non-commissioned officer in charge. “There’s no room for error. You can jeopardize the mission, the aircraft and the pilot’s life.”

“That’s where integrity and excellence comes in,” said Senior Airman Julie Hicks, a life support specialist. “It has to be perfect.”

“One pilot just came back and had a pinhole in his oxygen hose,” said Staff Sergeant Lisa Adamson, a life support specialist, during the February unit training assembly. “He had no idea he had it, but I found it. You learn to find little things.”

Attention to detail is critical, as the shop’s Airmen install parachutes, inspect helmets, oxygen masks, harnesses, survival lights and Anti-G suits, along with a host of other responsibilities.

“We’re a little bit of operations and a little bit of maintenance,” Sergeant Safely said. “We’re not specializing in just one job. We work with the hospital, with contracting, with muntions, with the cops. It keeps it fresh, especially with the young troops. We get to do (combat search and rescue) and see everything come together.”

Sergeant O’Daniel said the capability to help pilots get home safely after going down “is just unbelievable. Even from the first Gulf War to now is just unbelievable.”

Members of the shop helped pilots in combat survival training as they deployed to Florida in January to work with the Navy conducting live helicopter pick-ups in the waters off Key West.

“We were instructing the pilots,” Sergeant O’Daniel said “and sometimes, in combat survival training, we’re the adversaries. When the helicopters picked them up, (the pilots) had salt-water beating them in their faces from the rotors. It was quite an experience.”

Sergeant O’Daniel, an air reserve technician with 25 years of experience in this career field, described his Airmen as a “pretty diverse group.”

Sergeant O’Daniel said the foundation for the shop’s consistency was largely laid by Senior Master Sgt. Bob Brickner, who retired in 2005 and recently passed away.

“I attribute a lot of that to Brickner,” Sergeant O’Daniel said. “He ran this shop for 18 years and I was his assistant for 16 years.”

Now under Sergeant O’Daniel’s leadership, the staff continues to live up to its reputation of excellence.

“Anybody who’s been doing this very long takes great pride in their work and in their job,” he said. “It’s just great job satisfaction. You’re working right there (with the pilots) and providing (them) life saving equipment. You just feel your job’s really important.”