Travis staff sergeant, Dixon native, coordinates maintenance ops for Southwest Asia location

Published June 28, 2010
By Master Sgt. Scott T. Sturkol
380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- Staff Sgt. Christopher Feathers knows every day when he's working in the 380th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron's maintenance operations center that he has an important role in the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing's support for operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.

In his deployed job, Sergeant Feathers works as a maintenance operations controller at the maintenance operations center, or MOC, at a non-disclosed base in Southwest Asia. He is part of a team of eight Airmen who, while 24 hours a day, seven days a week, monitor and coordinate sortie production, maintenance production and execution of the flying and maintenance schedules while maintaining visibility of fleet health indicators for the 380th AEW.

According to Master Sgt. Terrance Johnson, MOC superintendent and Sergeant Feathers' deployed supervisor, the MOC coordinates with maintenance units and communicates priorities for competing limited resources such as fuel or calibration docks, wash racks and dispatched specialists from the maintenance squadrons based on daily flying schedules and maintenance priorities. The exchange of information between squadrons, Sergeant Johnson said, and the MOC must be in sufficient detail to allow the MOC to comply with reporting requirements and to identify potential problems.

Sergeant Feathers said MOC team does is critical to the success of deployed operations.

"We track aircraft maintenance and status to the maintenance group commander and other leadership levels so decisions can be made," said Sergeant Feathers, who is deployed from the 60th Maintenance Operations Squadron, 60th Air Mobility Wing, at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. "We are the focal point for all aircraft maintenance and aircraft emergency response."

Sergeant Feathers said he realizes how important the MOC is in serving as the eyes and ears of the flightline. He said he is also proud of how the MOC team works hard every day to complete its support of the wing's multi-faceted mission support four very different airframes in the KC-10 Extender, U-2 Dragonlady E-3 Sentry and RQ-4 Global Hawk aircraft.

"We know that what we do each day is critical to overall success," Sergeant Feathers said. "That drives us every day."

In joining the military more than eight years ago from his hometown of Dixon, Calif., Sergeant Feathers said it has been one of the best decisions he's ever made.

"I love it," Sergeant Feathers said. "It's the best job I ever had."

The 380th EMXS is a unit of the 380th Expeditionary Maintenance Group of the 380th AEW. The wing is comprised of five groups and 18 squadrons and the wing's deployed mission includes air refueling, air battle management, surveillance, and reconnaissance in support of overseas contingency operations in Southwest Asia. The 380th AEW supports operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa.