Wing achieves 'trifecta' in missile maintenance

  • Published
  • By By John Turner
  • 341st Missile Wing Public Affairs
MALMSTROM AIR FORCE BASE, Mont. --  It was a missile handler's dream come true as the 341st Missile Maintenance Squadron completed three independent missile movements--two at the same launch facility in a single day--within 48 hours.

Maintainers from the 341st MMXS missile handling team (MHT) seized an opportunity provided by unseasonably mild weather, spare transporter-erector vehicles and available manning to deliver and emplace Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile boosters at two launch facilities near Lewistown, Montana, and bring a faulty booster back to base Jan. 27-28. Scheduling all three jobs on a single 72-hour dispatch saved equipment wear, preparation time and hundreds of travel miles.

"Bam! Now that's a Trifecta," Col. Tom Wilcox, 341st Missile Wing commander, posted to the wing's official Facebook page Jan. 29. "Two emplacements and a pull ... You guys rock--precision all the way."

The feat is a significant accomplishment for MHT and the 341st MMXS missile maintenance team (MMT) that assisted in the tasks. This is possibly the first time in Air Force Global Strike Command history that a booster was removed and replaced at a site on the same day.

"The (MHT) crew's spirit was phenomenal," Col. Kenneth Speidel, 341st Maintenance Group commander, reported the next day. "As they rolled onto base last night with four hours to spare on their timeline, they asked if there was a fourth booster they could get!"

The success also represents a major team effort throughout the wing including the 341st MMXS electromechanical team (EMT), also from the squadron's generation flight, that prepared and closed the second day's worksite to save crucial hours for MHT and MMT; the 741st Maintenance Squadron's mechanical and pneudraulics section (MAPS) and power, refrigeration and electrical laboratory (PREL) sections that supplied the equipment that made the jobs possible; and the 341st Security Forces Group, notably the 741st Missile Security Forces Squadron camper teams that provided overnight security for maintenance equipment pre-positioned at the second day's work site.

"This initiative was not driven by upper leadership in MXG," Speidel said. "This came from the work center and the team themselves."

Master Sgt. Michael Braun, 341st MMXS NCO in charge of MHT, said the plan began to take form when he suggested that a scheduled job to emplace a booster in the M-01 complex could be combined with a removal of a booster from the C-01 complex projected several days later. When his team proved enthusiastic about the possibility, Braun expanded the proposal to also install the replacement booster at the C-01 complex's LF the same day, making it a one-for-one swap to help manage the inventory stored at Malmstrom.

"I wanted to harness that excitement and drive," he said, adding that his technicians had requested two jobs the same day ever since he took over the MHT section. "It's exactly what the guys wanted."

Braun planned the logistics with Master Sgt. Christopher Keck, 341st MMXS NCO in charge of MMT, and Master Sgt. Scott Weimer, assistant NCO in charge of MMT. Team proficiency, available equipment, rest time and weather were all factored, and an extra day was built into their plan as a buffer.

"We knew everything had to go well to execute two in one day," said Senior Master Sgt. Brian Newbraugh, 341st MMXS generation flight superintendent. "The technical proficiency side of this is what allowed us to meet the window of opportunity within 16 hours on that day. For risk mitigation we had another plan, to go three days. But they went ahead and knocked it out."

Newbraugh backed the plan and sold it to higher leadership, Keck said.

"Having that backing from our leadership made this process so much easier," Weimer said. "It allowed them to cross-channel and get security forces on board and everybody else that was going to be involved."

After the MHT team installed the first booster at the M-01 complex's LF, the emptied TE--a specialized tractor-trailer combination purpose built to carry Minuteman III downstages--was driven to the next day's work site in the C-01 complex. Security forces camper teams guarded the MHT team's equipment at the site overnight as the missile handlers rested at a nearby missile alert facility.

An EMT team prepared the site early the next morning, and closed it at the completion of the work day, saving MHT six hours of work. MHT and MMT could then focus on the time-sensitive double task called a 'yo-yo' by missile maintainers: extracting the booster from its launch tube and immediately installing a replacement.

"This was a complete team effort from the entire (generation) flight," Braun said. "Everybody was right on point and did their jobs exactly as they needed to. The proficiency would have blown you away to watch what these guys were doing."

Staff Sgt. Andrew Wellman, 341st MMXS MMT team chief, exemplified the spirit of cooperation and synergy. As a former MHT technician, he was able to direct MMTers on site toward tasks to free up MHT. Likewise, the MHT team helped MMT.

"It was phenomenal getting to see so many organizations, so many agencies, coming to one group just to do this job," Wellman said. "Knock it all out at one time--it's something I've wanted to do since I was a handler."

Tech. Sgt. Gary Pamplin, 341st MMXS MHT team chief, confirmed the enthusiasm of his team for performing the tasks.

"When they told us the possibility of doing three jobs in two days, we were excited by that," Pamplin said. "Then getting to actually do it, and everything went well--we were just blown away. We couldn't get the smiles off our faces for a couple of days."

Good communication throughout the operation was crucial to success said Keck, adding that it allowed everyone to be where they needed to be at exactly the right time.

That and the high degree of teamwork resulted in completing in two days what is usually a week's worth of work, despite MHT and MMT having half the manning they had a decade ago according to Weimer.

"Every team that went out there was the bare minimum you could have for that team, and we still executed better and more efficiently than I've seen happen since I've been here," Braun said.

"It was about job satisfaction," Newbraugh said. "It was about morale and getting to show off the skills."

"Everybody did it with a smile," Weimer said. "There wasn't one person out there who didn't want to be there."