News

Not quite a day at the office

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Teresa M. Hawkins
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  When someone says the word "office" many people think of a large room with dozens of cubicles, computers, cluttered desks, ringing phones and people typing a thousand words a minute. 

That description might be typical in some work environments, but in the military not all offices can be described that way. Senior Airman Tim Trujillo's office ranges from sitting behind a desk or working in a large, cold hanger to being on the windy flightline doing a maintenance check on a KC-135. 

Airman Trujillo, originally from Pueblo, Colo., is a 100th Maintenance Squadron inspection section journeyman, or crew chief, and he has worked on KC-135s for four years. 

"I love my job," he said. "I like working with my hands." To work on a 50-year-old aircraft, any maintainer would have to enjoy working with their hands. The everyday maintenance that needs to be done to keep these aircraft flying can take hours even if it's routine. 

"The KC-135 is an old jet, but it is still really reliable," he said. But daily maintenance is not the only thing the jets go through. 

Every 15 months Airman Trujillo and others in the 12-person shop do a little heavier maintenance on the old tanker, called an isochronal inspection, or ISO for short. Airman Trujillo and the others who work in his shop pull a tanker out of service for about two weeks to complete the inspection. The tanker will be slightly washed and then taken to the shop's hangar, and maintenance commences. 

During the first phase, the tail, boom, wings, engines and some of the panels are removed. Then during the inspection phase, each person inspects the areas of the plane to which they were assigned for damage that needs to be repaired.
The third phase is when all the discrepancies that were found and written up are corrected. 

During a recent inspection Airman Trujillo and his trainer Staff Sgt. Daniel Dela Cruz found some corrosion in the vertical stabilizer or fin of a KC-135 (see related story). It was written up and later found to be more severe than they thought. 

That meant the tail would either have to be removed to fix the fin, or the entire fin would need to be replaced. Airman Trujillo participated in the repair that took about 15 Airmen and a total of 32 hours to remove, repair and reinstall. That type of repair is not common for anyone in the 100th Maintenance Group. 

"Airman Trujillo is an outstanding Airman," Sergeant Dela Cruz said. "He's a fast learner, innovative and a quick thinker." 

Maintenance is crucial to the dependability of the aircraft and to all who fly them. The next time you walk into a noisy office remember Airman Trujillo and other crew chiefs that battle the elements every day to keep the aging KC-135 reliable.