JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- A University of Anchorage Alaska ROTC cadet got a day-in-the-life experience as a Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson maintenance officer March 1, 2017.
UAA cadet William Bryce Carpenter shadowed Air Force 1st Lt. Jonathan Quinlan, assistant officer in charge of the 525th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, to get a better idea on the responsibilities and job duties of a maintenance officer.
“I had an idea of what maintenance was, but I didn’t have a broad aspect, [or] the nitty-gritty details about what they do,” Carpenter said. “I learned their actual day-to-day activities when it comes to prepping the jets … as well as how they coordinate with the pilots.”
Quinlan gave Carpenter a tour of the hangar, explained what a maintenance officer does on a daily basis, and showed him how the F-22 kennels are set up.
“I tried to focus with him just on the daily activities, what you can usually expect, and the officer’s job,” Quinlan said. “Mostly the coordination side, because we’re not so much hands-on maintenance.”
Air Force Capt. Brian Smith, recruiting flight commander for Air Force ROTC Detachment 1 at UAA, pulled together 13 officers on JBER for the cadets to meet with. From there he let the cadets to set up when and where they would meet.
“For the cadets in ROTC … it’s time for them to let their hair down and really just talk about what life in the Air Force is like and what being a maintenance officer is like,” Smith said. “Having the base here to have those experts teach the cadets is unique in itself, because the cadets get a full picture of what these different career fields, are and have a better chance of choosing what they want to do.”
Following the shadowing, each cadet shared their experiences with the rest of the class.
“It actually pushed me to lean more towards maintenance as one of my top two choices, because it’s actually a field I feel like I could make a direct impact. If you don’t have maintenance and you can’t get those jets taking off, then you don’t have the mission to complete,” Carpenter said.
Carpenter’s positive attitude and eagerness to learn left a lasting impression on Quinlan.
“To have that level of enthusiasm and hard work, that’s very contagious,” Quinlan said. “It spreads around to everyone else who works with him, so that gives me a good amount of hope for the young officers who’ll be rolling in, in the next couple of years.”