100th ARW Airmen swap shops

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Kate Maurer
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  A "tail swap" refers to when tail numbers on aircraft paperwork are literally swapped. To some Airmen deployed to Moron AB, Spain, "tail swap" means they're coming home.

RAF Mildenhall is home to the 100th Air Refueling Wing and hundreds of aircrew and maintenance Airmen. Because the base hosts the only refueling mission in the European theater, 100th ARW Airmen tend to stay busy. Day in and day out they work to get KC-135 Stratotankers in the air and the air-refueling mission accomplished.

Many of those aircrew and maintenance Airmen go to and from the Spanish heat of Moron AB, every three months to complete the mission from mainland Europe.

"When Uncle Sam says go, you go," said Staff Sgt. Corey Shipe, 100th Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance technician from Savage, Maryland. "But I'm excited to get down there and I'm glad that I can relieve my friend from his deployment so he can go home."

During a tail swap, a group of those aircrew and maintenance Airmen will go from RAF Mildenhall to Moron AB to relieve personnel in the same career fields as them and those Airmen being replaced will return home to RAF Mildenhall.

Shipe is relieving Tech. Sgt. Mark James, 100th MXS aircraft structural maintenance technician from Glenwood, Illinois, who will return home to his wife and two children.

"I'm excited to go home!" exclaimed James. "I had a good time and three months is better than six but I know it's been hard on the family and I'm ready to see them."

Returning Airmen will have a period of turnover with their deploying counterpart. This will either happen just before the tail swap or the day of for efficiency and accuracy.

Some of the returning maintenance Airmen agreed that they learned a lot about other maintenance positions outside their traditional Air Force career field while at Moron AB. They said when their specific position might not have a day's worth of work, they help other maintenance positions. While not qualified to perform specific maintenance tasks like engine work, Shipe or James would be able to help with supporting tasks, such as retrieving tools, to help accomplish the mission faster and, in some situations, give the maintainers more free time to recuperate.

"You learn a lot about what it takes to actually get a jet flying," explained James. "There's a lot more to it than sheet metal work or turning a wrench and a lot of Airmen don't get to actually experience that."

After months of sun, heat, hard work and learning, the deployed aircrew and maintenance Airmen said farewell to their counterparts and fulfilled their final part of the tail swap - going home.