But with a composite aircraft like the CV-22, there’s a little more labor involved. With the Pave Low, you made sure no critical systems were impacted, did some sheet metal work, and it’s back in the fight. Now, anyone who has flown helicopters in austere locations knows that poking holes in the bottom of the aircraft is something you try to avoid, but it is also something that inevitably happens on occasion. It turned out that sometime during the previous night’s sortie, we landed on a piece of wood in one of the remote sites, driving splinters up through the bottom of the aircraft. While no one remembers speeches from official military functions unless they are extraordinarily good (or bad), I laid out four lines of operation that would be maintained as my Commander’s Intent for the first two years of the squadron’s existence: While the 71st SOS reactivation meant that operations and maintenance would now fall under different group organizations per standard USAF practice, I wanted our maintenance teammates in the formation to demonstrate the Team Osprey spirit. Within this formation was also the newly activated 71st Aircraft Maintenance Unit (AMU) of the 58th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron (AMXS). Col Paul Harmon, 58th Operations Group commander, first uncased the 71st SOS colors, furled since October 1993, then handed them to me, while Lt Col Todd Lovell, my operations officer, led the formation of troops and presented the ceremonial first salute. Unlike the normal change of command, this was an assumption of command since we were reactivating the squadron and there was no previous commander to relinquish the guidon. Col Eric Fiel, 58th Special Operations Wing commander, to whom I owed a huge debt of gratitude for selecting me for command, sat in the front row of distinguished visitors. An Osprey from the Edwards AFB flight test team was flown in for the event and dominated the southwest corner of the hangar. On, at Kirtland AFB, in the same hangar we would make our future home, the 71st SOS was officially reactivated as a USAF Formal Training Unit (FTU).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |