Power production Airmen come together for important training

  • Published
  • By Valerie Mullett
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs Office
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Members from the 219th RED HORSE Squadron, 341st Civil Engineer Squadron and 120th Fighter Wing power prodution shops came together at Malmstrom, April 15 thru 17 to conduct training on the installation of a Mobile Aircraft Arresting System, a skill that isn't used often during peacetime but is required knowledge when deployed.

"(MAAS) Installations are common for contingent and peacetime environments," said Master Sgt. William Gamradt, 219th RHS, Power Production shop supervisor. "Peacetime installations are used for air shows and contingent installations in a war-type environment can recover aircraft with battle damage."

The 219th RHS and 120th FW Civil Engineers have installed MAAS for air shows around Montana in the past while the 341st CES personnel have used their training while deployed since 9/11, he said. Most recently, in 2006, the 819th RHS installed MAAS at the 120th FW/Great Falls International Airport, while the runway and permanent barriers were being overhauled for the F-16 mission, Sergeant Gamradt added.

The MAAS equipment belongs to the active-duty 819th RHS assigned here, but Sergeant Gamradt was able to gain permissions to borrow the equipment from them to conduct this money-saving, invaluable training locally. Tech. Sgt. Britt Bare, NCOIC of the Electrical Power Production Shop, 341st CES, conducted the training.

"All of my trainees were eager to learn and actively participated in all of the lessons," Sergeant Bare said. "We were able to meet our training objectives with our first cooperative training between all of the units."

There are four ways to install the MAAS, according to Senior Airman Matthew Shipman, 219th RHS traditional Guardsman and one of the trainees.

"This is one of the core skills we learn in tech. school," Airman Shipman said. "They teach concrete installation, which is the easiest; soil; asphalt over concrete; and asphalt over soil installations, which is the hardest."

For this training, one barrier was installed in soil and one on concrete.

"The reason asphalt over soil installation is the hardest is because you have to chisel away asphalt before driving the KM stakes," Airman Shipman said. "The stakes are 66 inches long and it requires 19 of them to secure the barrier for a uni-directional installation."

This is the first time Airman Shipman has trained since his tech. school days, but he said the information came back to him once he got started.

In ideal conditions, the MAAS is supposed to be installed in less than an hour with a crew of 12 people, Sergeant Gamradt said. This training crew was made up of six individuals. Day one they spent moving the equipment to the training area and getting it positioned. Day two they spent eight hours training on the two installation types.

"Being able to accomplish this training locally was invaluable," Sergeant Bare said. "We were able to train Airmen who are preparing to deploy and may possibly be responsible to install and maintain this aircraft arresting system."

While there are other MAAS training courses established throughout the country that would meet their recurring training needs, having access to the equipment and being able to train locally has saved at least $2,000 per person, Sergeant Bare said.

"As for being able to conduct joint training with our different Air Force components, it's priceless," Sergeant Bare said. "All of us are subject to deployments and some of us could deploy together. We have established a good working relationship and opened the door for future training objectives to be met."