It's been a long time comming but I'm finally there. By the end of next week I will be ouprocessed for retirement. I will be on permissive TDY/terminal leave for 89 days . I hope to be working as soon as possible so I can collect two incomes for a few months.

The changes I've seen in the last 20 years has been stagering. My maintenance squadron which is currently around 380 personel was at one time over 1200. In that same time our workload has also more than doubled.

I'll miss the people.
I'll miss the job.
I won't miss the burn anyone for anything management we work for.

Re'

 

Congrats! I am still on terminal leave and love it on this side of the fence.


I agree with your comments on the maintenance side. I too saw greatness of SAC reduced to what it is today. Just how thin can they go? At one time, we had aircraft with enough maintainers to keep them in top shape. Today, I see a few just trying to keep the sortie rate up with no pride in ownership. The fleet is in the worse shape I have seen in years, and one only wonders why some major mishaps don't happen. As long as the generals are happy, nothing will be done. The first time something goes down and lives/equipment are lost, the crap will roll downhill and those overworked maintainers will be the ones who will take it in the butt.

I too am glad to be out, and proud to say there was never a mishap on anything I touched while I served. It was tough and I pissed off a lot of production type people, but stuck to my guns and NEVER let an aircraft fly with any questionable problems. Because of this, the Mission Capable rates might have went down, but it avoided some Class As. And because of this, I never would make Chief, but I still have my family, so all is good.

Thanks for your service!

 

Speaking of mishaps...I was actually a crewchief of this aircraft when it went down.



OPS.... Fortunately no body was killed and it was the crews fault.

Re'

 

Congrats on your retirement!

 

Congrats! Any plans yet?

 

Congratulations on your retirement, and thank you for your service.

 

Congrats on retirement.


Where you on the bird when that happened? And what was the final verdict? Pilot error/CRM? I forget the story on what happened. And was that at Altus?

 

congrats man, your retirement is well deserved. i have another 14.5 years...

 

No, I was not on the acft. With the back problems I already have I don't need more issues brought on by a 30g landing/crash.

The final verdict was aircrew error. The aircraft was 84-000059, it was a Dover AFB aircraft.

Re'

 

I'm in an Aircraft Maintenance Class for my Master's Degree and we went over this accident in particular. CRM wsan't the reason.

It was the pilots (both aircraft commander and co-pilot) to LOOK at their instruements and be able to identify why the #3 engine was reading idle but the #2 was out completely. This was in NO doubt completely pilot(s) error. VEry similar to Comair last September (minus the sterile cockpit rule)

Was a weird accident, luckly everybody lived.

 

Thanks for your service. Someday I'll be there, only 14 years and 6 months to go if I retire at 20 yrs.

 

Congrats! Well earned and well deserved. Thanks for your service!

I too remember the days of TAC and SAC and how we were 600,000+ plus deep and now? MY GAWD it's amazing we keep doing what we are doing on the level that we're in--not even including ops temp. I just hit 18yrs Sept 8th and Sept 9th 08' I'll be dropping my papers as well as the wife. Next assignment comes up in June and they'll have me for exactly 8 mos and 11 days.

 

Congrats on retirement. You older maintainers echo things that I get bashed about. The amount of people cut, the workload higher, and by 09, we lose 12k more....pretty soon there will be no one to work all of these f22s they are ordering. My wife and I are both active duty, both have 11 years to go til 20. I always said if I did 10 I was half way there might as well do 20.....but these days.
If I dont end up cut(lol) and make it 20, I wont do another day.

 

Yea, I always got bashed too when I would bring these concerns to the "upper management". I am surprised I still have a tongue because I was always biting it. The shut up and color gets old fast. Normally I would tell people to suck it up and do the job, but this is getting dangerous with the number of cuts going on. Taking maintainers out of the mix so they can do their "PT" also took away from the pool of workers. This made for an average 11-12 hour day, and wears people out.

I did the time, but my wife got out at 16 because she was offered a great job that pays VERY well. We did the math, and will make out better in the long run even though she did not get a retirement. She did get a nice VA disability though that is actually better than that retirement check.

 

Hey now, you need to be "FIT TO FIGHTtm"
You the PT is fine and dandy for people that all work dayshift and can close an office early for a "going away" or "retirement", doesnt really affect them much. Maintainers on the other hand, we all just have that mentality that PT is not important to the job, because its not.

I can see it now

"We need a 7 level out here for this redball"
he's at the gym sir
"There's only one on shift?"
Airforce told the other 2 to get out sir

 

Don't laugh, IT HAS HAPPENED at Barksdale! There was a red ball on a flyer for electrics and the 7 level was at the gym. The other 2 AMUs were called and their 7 levels were ALSO at the gym. Production Super had to go over there and fetch one. He came back, gay AF shorts and all to fix and sign off the write up. Then he got pissed because he had to find another ride BACK to the gym where his car and stuff were.

PT just stands for Production Trouble in the maintenance side.

 

CRM???

While it is true the crew advanced the throttle for #2 engine which was shut down and left #2 engine at idle, there were other screwups. They were also too low, going too slow,and had flaps at 100% when their approach was calculated for 40%. Bad communication was also a factor. By the time they realized they were in trouble and made the throttle screw up it was too late.

Re'

 

We have to do our PT on our own time.

Re'

 

Good job. Congrats. Can't wait for my 20 years in 2012.

 

Congratulations on the retirement! I have 8 1/2 years to go til I hit 20.