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Mobility Warriors: Airman embodies 'excellent spirit' of maintenance unit

  • Published
  • By 2nd Lt. Mark Graff
  • 6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
MACDILL AFB, Fla. --  As a guidance and control specialist assigned to the 6th Air Mobility Wing's Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, Senior Airman Philip Spencer has no problem braving the summer elements on the flight line here -- partly because of his deployment experience. 

"Heat is no issue," said Airman Spencer. "Once you've been to the desert and you've worked there in August, this heat is nothing compared to that heat." 

But Florida's balmy summer weather does present its own challenges to Airmen. Frequent thunderstorms, the potential for dangerous lightning strikes and hurricane force winds are only part of the typical duty day for the men and women of the AMXS. Lightning strikes have even damaged the asphalt on the flight line, hampering the ability to launch planes. 

In any case, Airman Spencer is quick to remind anyone that it's more than the frequent deployments and their valuable experience that assist he and his fellow Airmen to complete the day-to-day maintenance mission. 

"It starts with our leadership, our supervision, said Airman Spencer. "They keep us ready." 

So it starts there and falls down to individual shops and then you have shop policies that go above and beyond the level our supervision is setting," said Airman Spencer. 

Such a trend in the aircraft maintenance shops here has garnered attention at the national level. 

Recently, the AMXS was tabbed as one of only two Air Force maintenance units to earn the Secretary of Defense's Field Level Maintenance Award for 2009. The award will be presented at a ceremony during October's Department of Defense Maintenance Symposium and Exhibition held in Phoenix, Ariz. 

Such excellence on the roundthe-clock maintenance shifts, to include seamless turnover between the active duty 6th AMW and the Air Force Reserve's 927th Air Refueling Wing at Selfridge Air Reserve Base, Mich., illustrates how effective a fully integrated maintenance shop can be. 

The working relationship between active duty and Reserve members is a comfortable one, according to Airman Spencer. 

"It's just like having more active duty guys to me," Airman Spencer noted. "After work we hang out and do physical training together." 

However, it's not necessarily all work and no play for this total force group of aircraft maintainers. 

"Morale is high in maintenance, said Airman Spencer. " We have a lot of cookouts and just recently we had a squadron 'get together' at SeaScapes." 

Airman Spencer said high morale and the drive to complete the mission with such distinction begins at the top of his chain of command and works down through the organization, earning the AMXS its national award. 

"The supervision and our commander...they do a lot for us," Airman Spencer said. "When it comes time to perform, it puts a lot of stress on us. They take care of us ecause they know that when it's time to perform, we're going to perform."