News

653rd CLSS lends helping hand to wounded Kadena bird

  • Published
  • By Holly Birchfield
  • 78 ABW/PA
Robins Air Force Base, GA --  Seventeen members from the 653rd Combat Logistics Support Squadron didn't know quite what they were getting into when they recently headed to Kadena Air Base, Japan, to repair a grounded MC-130P Combat Shadow.

True to the group's form, however, they rolled up their sleeves and used their skills to get the Air Force Special Operations Command aircraft flying again.

The team, consisting of 13 sheet metal structural maintainers, two electricians and two crew chiefs, had their work cut out for them.

"We replaced 61 buttline longerons, left and right side, one at a time," said Master Sgt. Jeff Krimmer, structural maintenance NCO in charge in the 653rd CLSS and team chief. "The longerons tie the front of the fuselage to the center wing box on the MC-130P aircraft. It gives the fuselage strength."

Sergeant Krimmer said the longerons on the 1965 aircraft had been severely corroded due to age and Kadena's environmental effects.

Normally, a depot team would do the job. This time, however, the 653rd CLSS tackled the mission. And while the unit has lots of experience, this trip was a first, Sergeant Krimmer said.

"This is the first time the longerons have been replaced in the field," he said. "It's usually replaced (at the Air Logistics Center), if replaced at all. The challenge was that we didn't know what we were getting into."

Once inside the project, the team discovered the right side longerons were completely corroded and there were 17 areas on its skin that needed replacement. Additionally, three ring segments that tie each longeron together were corroded and needed replacement along with replacement of the fittings that tie the longerons into the center wing box.

Tech. Sgt. Brad Gravot, a structural maintenance craftsman in the 653rd CLSS who was the assistant team chief and day shift lead on the mission, said the work was a major undertaking.

"We encountered problems with the end fittings as far as them kind of being tweaked and twisted," he said. "When we replaced them with the new ones, we had to deal with the engineers a lot, calling back and telling them that it's shifted this way or that way, trying to get it in its correct position."

It's challenges like this that keep Sergeant Gravot going though.

"That's one thing I like about being in the 653rd CLSS," he said. "When you're out on the line, it's pretty much normal, typical repairs or replacing fasteners and maintenance stuff. Being in a depot, every (temporary duty) and every aircraft is a different thing. It's never the same."

Overcoming the mission's challenges meant working on a three-shift rotation, seven days a week and working a little longer some days to compensate for the time difference between Robins and Kadena when engineer input was needed.

Tech. Sgt. Donald McMullin, a structural maintenance craftsman in the 653rd CLSS, said the squadron worked well with the host unit on the job.

"It was an outstanding team effort from everybody," he said. "Because we are the 653rd CLSS, we are multiskilled. I can do wiring and our electricians can do sheet metal, so it was a combined effort from everybody on the team to get this thing done."

The MC-130P was one of three such aircraft grounded at Kadena.

Sergeant Krimmer said a five-person team is currently at Kadena working on one of the other grounded AFSOC aircraft.

The second team is expected to return in a month or so, Sergeant Krimmer said.