Airmen in Base Operations project combat power

  • Published
  • By Air Force Staff Sgt. Zachary Wolf
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Airmen in the 3rd Operations Support Squadron, Base Operations are responsible for all the aircraft inbound and outbound to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson and support multiple units including the 3rd Wing, the U.S. Army, and civilian aircraft.
"If we fail to operate, no aircraft can take off or land and then we don't have a mission," said Airman Joshua Merritt, native of Grants Pass, Oregon.
The work Base Operations Airmen do behind the scenes keeps the air field from becoming chaotic. These Airmen showed Chief Master Sgt. Steven Bohannon, 3rd Wing command chief, some of the specific tasks with of their jobs Nov. 30, 2011.
"I come out to hang out with you guys because where I sit, my perspective on things in the wing is a view of how the whole of the wing is doing, but what I don't get is how things look from your perspective," Bohannon said.
The visit isn't a tour of the facility or the equipment used by the Airmen; it is an actual "teach me your job" visit. Chief Bohannon said he wants to learn the jobs and do them shoulder to shoulder with the Airmen.
"I found that if I get down and get my hands dirty with you (Airmen) and you teach me your job and I get appreciation of how much work and skill it takes, that you will drop your guard a little bit and would tell me things you've noticed that you might not normally talk to a command chief about," Chief Bohannon said.
Airmen showed Bohannon the ins-and-outs of airfield operations.
"I make sure the airfield runs smoothly by ensuring all the parking areas are safe for aircraft to land and park without any incidents," said Airman 1st Class Aubrey Gregoire of New Braunfels, Texas.
As part of the visit, Bohannon learned how to enter a flight plan into a log and keep track of when aircraft are coming in and when they are taking off. Gregoire led the first session with Bohannon and then took him out to perform a runway condition reading.
"A runway condition reading is the number that we take for snow or ice on runways and taxiways to make sure they're safe for aircraft movement," Gregoire said.
The device used to take these reading is a Bowmonk Airfield Friction meter called a Bowmonk Mark 3. This device is a portable electronic instrument for measuring and recording the maximum deceleration possible on a runway or road surface. Basically, Airfield Management personnel drive between 20 and 25 miles per hour on the airfield, induce a skid, letting off the brake prior to stopping. This action allows the Bowmonk to provide a numerical reading of the pavement's braking action. Airfield Management personnel decipher that information and translate it to Technical Order standards so that pilots know the required braking action for their specific aircraft types, Gregoire said.
After the condition reading, Senior Airman Joshua Mariscal, native of San Jose, California, showed the chief how to send a Visual Flight Rule outbound message to multiple airports.
The procedure is important because flying VFR means the aircraft is invisible to radar and we send a report to wherever the aircraft is going, saying they will be there at a certain time, and if they aren't there something is going on, Mariscal said.
"Our initial job is ground safety operation of all aircraft," Mariscal said.
From tracking the schedules of incoming flights to measuring ice and snow on the runway and making available adequate aircraft parking, Airmen of the 3rd OSS, Base Ops, play a key role in the overall 3rd Wing Mission.