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Air Force Depots AirVolume 27, Number Force 2 “Advocates for Missileers”Mis sileers June 2019 The Quarterly Newsletter of the Association of Air Force Missileers Maintenance, Missiles and Missileers 1 Executive Director’s Corner Inside Front Cover Air Force Depots 5 Evolution of the ICBM Depot 6 Minuteman Electromechanical Team Maintenance 7 Progranmmed Depot Maintenance for Minuteman 11 Peacekeeper Maintenance 12 GBSD is Coming 14 And the Trucks We Rode In On 15 The 20th Air Force Page 15 MiMi Special Exhibit, Cold War Briefing, Letters to AAFM 18 New Members Page, Taps for Missileers 19 Donations Pages 20 Member Application Inside Back Cover Reunions and Meetings Back Cover The Mission of the Association of Air Force Missileers - - Preserving the Heritage of Air Force Missiles and the people involved with them - Recognizing Outstanding Missileers - Keeping Missileers Informed - Encouraging Meetings and Reunions - Providing a Central Point of Contact for Missileers AAFM Newsletter Volume 27, Number 2 June 2019 Executive Director’s Corner I’m writing this after enjoying a great Father’s Day with family, flipping burgers on the grill, and chasing grandkids. Because this edition is focused on Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) maintenance, it reminds me of all the men who gave up their Father’s Day and many other holidays to keep our alert force green. It’s not just the guys who dispatched on Father’s Day to fix an off-alert sortie, but all of the folks back on base from maintenance control, to the vehicle and equipment teams and even keys and codes that were instrumental in the success of their mission. In this edition we salute all of you for your contributions to the success of the ICBM mission. I came to maintenance at the mid-point in my career. I thought I was on track for an operations command position when Col Mike Jackson, 90th Operations Group Commander, with more maintenance time than operations, told me I was headed to maintenance. He set up a visit across the base with Col Tal Gerringer, 90th Maintenance Group Commander. As a result of that meeting, I became the 90th Field Missile Maintenance Squadron (FMMS) Commander (this was before Command Selection Boards) and my transition from Operations to Maintenance was underway. As a side note, the call to Col Gerringer’s office caused my first contact with Barb Lutz. I developed many friends from my time in Maintenance, but little did I know that first call to Barb Lutz in 1991 was the start of a long-term friendship that endures today. Barb recently retired from civil service (after working for the wing and 20th Air Force (AF) commanders and is missed daily - she was a powerhouse behind our mission success. She kept all of us on track and she did it with a smile, a positive greeting and a basket of the best baked treats a visitor could ever expect! Barb is the epitome of service before self and excellence in all you do! I took over the 90 FMMS from Lt Col Brad Maasjo, and quickly understood that my Maintenance Supervisor, Maj John Faulkner, and Maintenance Superintendent, CMSgt John Farmer, were focused on mission performance - I spent more time in that first year worried about people than the mission, but I knew they had my back. While at FMMS I met a lot of great dispatching technicians, including Mike and Gina Knipp (they weren’t married at the time), working the Periodic Maintenance Team (PMT) and Facilityt Maintenance Team (FMT) missions. I learned more about the intricacies of Precision Measuring Equipment Lab (PMEL) than I care to remember. I also learned about the “symbiotic” relationship between FMMS and the Organization Missile Maintenance Squadron (OMMS) from Lt Col Harry DeVault, the 90 OMMS Commander. I gained a better appreciation for the importance of how a dispatch started with a good vehicle and equipment load out of VECB (Vehicle and Equipment Control Branch) -a successful OMMS mission started with the correct FMMS vehicle load. While there, I advocated for funding for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags on all dispatchable items to improve parts and equipment accountability - I lost that battle, but am hopeful Ground Based Strategic Defense (GBSD) will take care of that problem in the future (see our article on future ICBM maintenance). The following year, Lt Col Sharon Bergmann took my place at FMMS and I focused on the 90 OMMS mission with Maj Bruce Young and Chief Glenn Cummings as part of my leadership team. Thanks to my FMMS experience, I was able to focus more on the mission during this command. Capt Kevin Gamache taught me about Peacekeeper maintenance and Capt Mike Fortney and SMSgt Doug Washburn taught me about the world of Electro-mechanical Teams (EMT). I spent many hours in the field learning the mission of Missile Handling Teams (MHT) and Missile Maintenance Teams (MMT) - hours that would shape my perceptions on how to improve maintenance of the future. Lt Col Dave Noble would take my place as the OMMS commander and a year later oversee the combination of FMMS and OMMS into one super maintenance squadron. Thanks to Col Terry Cronin, Bruce Young and I would transition that summer to Air Force Space Command to help stand up the ICBM Maintenance Division at AFSPC along with Lt Col Kai Lee Norwood. The two years described above changed my focus on the ICBM mission and thus the focus today in this edition of our newsletter. In this edition, Charlie writes about the history of ICBM maintenance including the SAC’s development of SACM 66-12. CMSgt (Ret) Mark Silliman provides insight into his first experiences as an EMTer at Grand Forks, TSgt Sam Savoie from 20 AF writes about today’s dispatch routine, Col (Ret) Blaine McAlpin provides insight into the world of Peacekeeper maintenance (with edits by CMSgt (Ret) Dave Clark) and Shane Finders shares some insights into what maintenance might be like when the Air Force deploys the GBSD as the Minuteman III replacement. Charlie’s second article looks at the history of depot maintenance which leads in to articles by Col (Ret) Randy Tymofichuk, who writes about the role of the Depot, and Col Brian Young, who published an article in the Hilltop Times in 2017 on how the Air Force realigned our efforts regarding Periodic Depot Maintenance of our launch centers and launch facilities with standard Air Force practices. 20 AF finishes off the issue with an article from the historian commemorating 75 years of 20 AF. We hope you enjoy this tribute to the maintenance experience and look forward to more stories to come. Col (Ret) Jim Warner, Executive Director Several of you who sent your dues to our new PO Box in May got envelopes back from the USPS. This error has been corrected by the Post Office and mail is now being delivered. Please resend your dues to AAFM, PO Box 652, Johnstown, CO 80534. If you use autopay through your bank, ensure you update the address to this box. 1 Air Force Missileers The Quarterly Newsletter of the Association of Air Force Missileers Volume 27, Number 2 “Advocates for Missileers” June 2019 Mace Crew at Bitburg - not Just Operators Maintaining Bombers in WW II Maintenance, Missiles and Missileers – by Col (Ret) Charlie Simpson, AAFM Executive Director Emeritus Throughout the history of aerospace vehicles (airplanes, helicopters, missiles, rockets, etc.), you always find a lot of stories and articles about the operators – the pilots, and the missile launch officers for those of us who are Missileers. The old song, reworded somewhat by the Groobers back in the seventies, started with, “The pilots get all the glory…” We all know why – the operators are the most visible part of the force, no matter what the system. They fly the aircraft and launch the missiles, and that’s what the press covers and the public sees. Even though a lot more people, military and civilian, officer and enlisted, are involved in preparing those systems for flight and maintaining them day-to-day, those efforts are far less visible than four F-16s flying by in formation or a Minuteman lifting off fromVandenberg. At a symposium that at the Society of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) reunion in 2000, four retired Chief Master Sergeants (CMSgt) who had served as SAC Senior Enlisted Advisors (now called Command Chief Master Sergeants) talking to an audience that was mostly former bomber and tanker officer crew members, with a few Missileers mixed in. CMSgts Jim McCoy, Charlie Reynolds, Sam Parish and Dan Cook (McCoy and Parish also served as the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force) gave a superb presentation about the enlisted force in SAC. (Video is part of the AAFM SAC DVD Collection, available online or on the Donation Pages in this issue.) ` They were direct and to the point, with Chief Parish summing up one very strong opinion at the end of the discussion. He characterized that “Pilot Glory” very well – to paraphrase the chief, he said, “The last couple of days, we have heard a lot about bombers, tankers and missiles, and bomber and missile crews. What we haven’t heard about is Stripes – by Stripes, I mean the enlisted part of SAC and the Air Force. You all have heard the story of the bomber crew members discussing who on the crew was most important – each had a good reason. Then, their crew chief, a young enlisted three striper walked up and reminded them that none of them could have done their important jobs if he hadn’t provided them with a fully functional and ready bomber to fly.” Chief Parish went on, pointing to one of the retired generals in the audience, “Let’s go beyond that crew chief, general.
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