JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- Top-performing members of the 525th Aircraft Maintenance Unit were able to claim a win at the Wing Load Crew Competition at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Aug. 9.
The competition ended with the three-man team made up of Staff Sgt. Jeremy R. Doerman, Senior Airman Kay D. Fitzgerald and Senior Airman Chris Phantai from the 525th AMU weapons section, beating the other team by 10 out of 1,000 possible points.
The quarterly competition consists of two AMU weapons-section teams going head-to-head for time and accuracy.
A weapons load crew is a group of three people: the one-man is the team chief who leads and supervises the two-man and three-man. The two-man prepares the aircraft and helps the one-man in loading the munition onto the aircraft. The three-man prepares the munition, bombs and missiles, and also drives the bomb lift truck.
“From the time we start at a new base we are all trained in all one-man, two-man and three-man exact procedures,” Doerman said. “I can load with any two-man or three-man on base and they all know what they are doing.”
In this case, there are certain requirements for the AMU crews picked for the Wing Load Crew Competition.
“One of the requirements of the competition is that the three people have to load together at least one time during the monthly load-out inspections we do,” Doerman said. “As a crew only has to have worked together one or two times, the crews were notified two weeks in advance to start getting ready before the competition.”
One might think that having two weeks to prepare sounds easy; however, the crew isn’t notified of the full details – for example, what the load will be – until 10 minutes before the competition starts.
“We were able to prepare for the included uniform inspection, clean all of our tools and make sure there are no discrepancies, and study for the written test regarding Air Force Instructions and technical orders, as well as procedures for the various loads as part of the competition,” said Doerman.
Studying on their own time, they sharpen their memorization by quizzing each other when able.
“It is very competitive, it really tests your knowledge base,” Fitzgerald said. “Also, the application of that knowledge base is tested. You don’t have a lot of prep time, and you don’t know what you are loading until the day of the competition. You really don’t have an advantage at all. When you only have 10 minutes, you don’t have a chance to go over the technical orders so you’ve really got to know your stuff. It’s very important that we know our positions and what’s expected of us; if you don’t, it can cause a ripple effect to the entire mission,” Fitzgerald said.
While it may be extra work and time, the challenge of the Wing Load Crew Competition serves as a knowledge-based test as well as a significant morale booster.
“It was a good feeling to know that our crew won the competition,” Fitzgerald said. “Especially since we were long overdue for this win.”