JBER maintenance program works behind the scenes

  • Published
  • By Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert Barnett
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  When aircraft break down, parts are always handy to get it back in the air as quickly as possible. When a ground vehicle needs parts, sometimes the specific part isn't easy to come by. That's where the 673d Vehicle Management Flight, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, comes in. They operate a program, acting as a maintainer network, called Vehicle Parts Supply Organization.

"Here's a program that grew out of need, it is the only one of its kind in the entire Air Force," said Air Force Lt. Col. Patricia Csank, 673d Logistics Readiness Squadron commander. "The pacific is unlike any other theater in the world, because our bases face a tyranny of distance defined by the vastness of oceans. That means it takes transportation longer to get parts out to some of the outlying bases like Diego Garcia."

The Pacific Air Forces program is managed by PACAF and executed by the flight, said Air Force Master Sgt. Ronald Cole, 673d Vehicle Management superintendant.

"We supply hard to find vehicle parts. For example, if someone can't find a part for an American vehicle, they can give us a call and we'll go out on the economy here, track it down and ship it to them," he said. "Or we'll go to the lower 48, have it shipped here, and then get it to them."

Their realm of responsibility ranges from South Korea to Diego Garcia, an installation located on a coral island in the Indian Ocean, Cole said.

"The original idea in 1997 was to capitalize on our unique location in Alaska and source hard to find parts locally for mechanics in more geographically or economically challenging areas," said Air Force 1st Lt. Dayton Blume, Vehicle Management flight commander. "The hard to find parts may not necessarily be available on the internet, so they come to us. However, if a mechanic is really what they need, VPSO mechanics will work with local vendors to customize parts to specification."

It makes sense to have some parts centrally located, Cole said, but that can't be done with hard to find parts. In today's fiscal environment, it just isn't cost effective to invest in large parts stocks.

"We are available to support all bases throughout PACAF," he said. "Korea might not have the capability to re-chrome a hydraulic cylinder ram, whereas VPSO could have it re-built and re-furbished, then sent back to the user."

The program also played a combat role.

"VPSO provided support for functions in Afghanistan up until 2006," Blume said. "As vehicle mechanics deployed from PACAF bases in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom over the past 10 years, they took contact information for VPSO with them in their tool kits. At the time, Elmendorf Air Force Base's VPSO became a trade secret passed along to successive rotations of mechanics, making the Logistics Readiness Squadron's mission truly a capability to leverage globally."

VPSO has been growing in popularity.

"Its gained publicity recently among vehicle maintainers in Europe, it's worth talking about this kind of ingenuity," Csank said. "It's the vehicle maintenance community networking to fill what the enterprise would view as a very small demand but no less critical for vehicle maintenance. There may be opportunity for the concept to evolve in the coming years. There's nothing like it in the entire Air Force."