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Joint Base MDL Airman provides deployed maintenance support in Iraq

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
  • Air Mobility Command Public Affairs
SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. --  Airman 1st Class Christopher Atkins is an aerospace propulsion specialist deployed to the 521st Air Mobility Operations Group, Detachment 5, at Joint Base Balad, Iraq.

Airman Atkins is deployed from Air Mobility Command's 305th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, 305th Air Mobility Wing, at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., and his hometown is Fayetteville, N.C.

In his deployment job with the 521st AMOG, Airman Atkins supports aircraft maintenance for the C-17 Globemaster III and other aircraft. According to his official Air Force job description for an aerospace propulsion specialist, Airman Atkins inspects, maintains, modifies, tests and repairs propellers, turboprop and turboshaft engines, jet engines, small gas turbine engines and engine ground support equipment.

Airmen like Airman Atkins are trained to interpret and implement directives and publications pertaining to maintenance functions, including environmentally safe maintenance practices. They also determine resource requirements, including facilities, equipment and supplies and they inspect and evaluate maintenance activities.

Airman Atkins is also trained to advise, perform troubleshooting and determine repair procedures on aircraft engines. He diagnoses and repairs malfunctions using technical publications and solves maintenance problems by studying drawings, wiring and schematic diagrams, technical instructions, and analyzing operating characteristics of aircraft engines and propellers.

Aerospace propulsion Airmen are also trained to remove, install, inspect, repair and modify engines, engine modules and components, and propellers and propeller components. They disassemble and assemble engines and propellers adhering to prescribed procedures and prepares engine and propellers for installation, storage or transportation. They test components using bench mockups and test equipment and install and remove engines on test stands and operate, evaluate, and perform test stand functions on engines.

To do his job, Airman Atkins has to maintain mandatory job knowledge in mechanical, hydro-mechanical, electrical and pneudraulic principles and apply them to jet and turboprop engines and propellers. He also has to know oil analysis principles, wear metal criteria and guidelines, concepts and application of maintenance directives, using and interpreting diagrams and technical publications.

The mission of the 521st Air Mobility Operation Group, Det. 5, Airmen is to support all Air Mobility Command heavy airlift aircraft transiting Joint Base Balad, said Master Sgt. Richard Spotts, the 521st AMOG, Det. 5 production superintendent in an article July 21, 2010.. Joint Base Balad's mission, the master sergeant said, and everything that happens there primarily relies on AMC heavy airlift moving smoothly in and out.

(Staff Sgt. Phillip Butterfield, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs, contributed to this story)