Periodic maintenance team completes 7,000 overdue tasks

  • Published
  • By Airman Daniel Brosam
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  Less than one year ago, all the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron periodic maintenance team knew was they had more than 7,000 overdue periodic maintenance actions to complete.

Today, they are one of the only intercontinental ballistic missile teams able to claim the status "zero overdue periodic inspections."

This feat has not been accomplished here since 2008, nearly eight years ago.

The 341st MMXS PMT is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of launch facilities, missile alert facilities and launch control centers in the field where highly trained missileers control the nuclear ICBMs that are on alert 24/7.

Each LF, MAF and LCC must undergo periodic inspections to ensure the equipment is fully functional in order to allow the Airmen to carry out the mission. If PMTs find a malfunctioning or missing, but not system-crippling piece of equipment, such as a missing nut or bolt, a work order known as a periodic maintenance action is created and the team must fix the problem.

The PMT's tasks include anything from working on electrical equipment, wires and computer systems, to diodes, fiber optics, power transfer cabinets, corrosion and even draining water that sometimes accumulates at the bottom of the pit below the missile.

Just because a car is driven 50,000 miles without an oil change doesn't necessarily mean it doesn't work, but continuing to drive it may eventually cause the car to stop working. As a vehicle needs routine maintenance such as an oil change, tire rotation and brake change, these locations do as well.

These Airmen conduct preventative maintenance to keep the LFs, MAFs and LCCs from being completely broken.

Unlike a vehicle that breaks down and is brought into the shop to get fixed, the unique aspect about the PMT is they bring the shop to the issue. The team drives a PMT van loaded with every tool and piece of equipment necessary to maintain and repair each location.

However, with limited manning, the team slowly fell behind and 10 work orders turned into more than 7,000.

Staff Sgt. Christian Jackson, 341st MMXS PMT team chief, decided to push the pedal to the metal and get his team caught up.

Jackson said when he first came to the PMT, he was told about the overdue actions and he set a mental goal to complete them.

"Before, we started to fall behind because of manning but we started to play catch-up," said Jackson. "Everything that needed to be repaired was repaired, allowing the missiles to stay on full alert."

Until recently, the team was only able to take one van out at a time due to the limited manning. Now, these Airmen may be the only team with two certified six-man PMTs to perform maintenance.

"Having a team that's solid ... that's how you're able to go and knock out an entire site," said Jackson. "I don't know how other wings or shops are doing it, but we have been fortunate enough to have really good, strong team members to go out and complete an entire LF in one day."

Master Sgt. Jesse Martinez, 341st MMXS facilities flight superintendent, said completing all 7,000 tasks instilled confidence in the Airmen.

"These Airmen already overcame the impossible and they're going forward and creating miracles," said Martinez. "They're ready and geared up to where they're going to be accomplishing a lot more. This is just the tip of the iceberg."

Martinez spoke on complacency and said when people get comfortable, things will go back to the way they were.

"Once you say it's OK and you sit back, you're going to allow it to fail again," said Martinez. "These guys aren't allowing that to be an option. We're taking it back."

The accomplishment of completing more than 7,000 overdue work orders in less than a year comes down to the hard work and dedication of all the Airmen on the team.