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No flying unit can reach 150,000 flight hours and 38 years without a Class A mishap without the hard work of the men and women on the ground--the Maintainers! As I talked to the people who make it happen, leaders and young troops, certain themes came out that I believe other units can use to improve their operations.

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Attitude

First and foremost is attitude, and I am not talking about a "high and mighty" attitude. I'm talking about an attitude of thinking about what you do, leadership involvement and making safety a priority at all times while meeting the mission. Maj Scott Morris, 136 AW/SE stated, "Mission accomplishment is paramount, and safety is a tool to its achievement." How does maintenance make this tool work for them?

Leadership

When talking to senior leadership and the flight chiefs one key comment I found was, "If a leader is to be successful they have to get away from the desk, and get out to the flightline or backshop." Nothing new here. If you are doing all your managing from the desk, then you don't really know what your troops are doing. According to CMSgt Roy Simmons, Maintenance Superintendent, "We rely on the people, for to us there is no place for micromanagement in the Air Force. It takes everyone working together." Plus, leadership on the flightline provides a chance for feedback at the first level of supervision, who can then send problems up the chain of command for action. You must pay attention to your people, and if you know what they need/want you can enhance safety and the mission.

I didn't just talk to the old heads in leadership, many of whom have been with the 136 AW for over 20 years. I talked to the younger troops as well. You have to give credit where credit is due, and leadership has worked hard to indoctrinate the new troops. One individual commented, "The older troops made me feel part of the group even though I can't do the task as fast as they can." A common theme was that there is an "adult type of learning environment." "They (leadership/trainers) don't treat us like we don't know what we are doing." "They give us time to expand our knowledge level and ensure we do it right." A comment I related to was that on active duty you are always nervous. It's a medium-to-high threat if mistakes are made At the 136 AW, it's a low threat. Yes, you get called to the boss to explain what happened, but they aren't on a "witch hunt" to find someone to blame.

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In addition, don't beat a dead horse; otherwise you will be ignored. Give your people the information and treat them like adults. Don't withhold information about accident or injury causes. People want to know! Otherwise, it will just be rumors, you won't learn from the mistake, and someone will unfortunately repeat the same mistake. The 136 AW actually practices "leadership by example."

Experience/Training

The Guard has an advantage that many units don't have, an average experience level of over 10 years. Many of the crew chiefs have worked the same aircraft since it came off the factory line. The benefit of this carries over into how they treat the aircraft and train their people. Troops have a pride of ownership in the aircraft and the facilities. From day one, everyone knows they can say no and stop a task if it's unsafe. People want to know about the aircraft, so they encourage them to take more interest in what is going on and how the systems work. Col Daniel Henderson, MXG/CC, stated, "You must make time for training and invest in educating your people." This helps to prevent mistakes. But a key factor is responsibility and accountability. The 136 AW fosters an attitude where you can learn from mistakes.

Even though they have a high experience level, they are now getting more three-levels, which has changed their focus. The continuity of the unit helps in training the new troops as well as the civilian skill crossover of the people they gain. This knowledge gap is something they haven't had before, so they had to adjust their training program to fit the people. The recent unit activation helped train their troops, as they had people available full-time for training, instead of the traditional weekends and two weeks. The deployment actually increased safety by people being able to work with everyone. As they worked with all the different specialties, they learned the danger areas and risks to avoid. One of the largest success factors was their attitude of helping each other and "no union cards." There were no inhibitions about helping anyone with another task. It is a team effort to ensure safety and the mission.

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Complacency

If you look at most maintenance or maintenance-related mishaps, you will find complacency at the forefront of the problem. At the 136 AW, they try to ensure complacency doesn't exist. They aren't always successful, but leadership and workers have made it an issue they are constantly aware of and looking to correct. Continual requalificiation and a mentorship program for the young troops are part of their efforts. These efforts include the "young people" ensuring the "old guys" aren't letting their guard down. This goes back to the creating of an atmosphere of cooperation between all wing members, and a non-retribution safety culture.

Ops and Maintenance

As with all flying units, the ops and maintenance relationship is part of the wing's strength or weakness. The 136 AW has created a collaborative effort between ops and maintenance with a positive feedback loop. They talk to each other on a routine basis, and there are times when they conflict. Ops wants to fly, and maintenance wants to repair. Communication and compromise is the key. Both sides talk to each other to work out the highest priority, and how they can compromise to ensure mission accomplishment. Safety isn't a special event; it's an everyday concern.

ORM

ORM is a tool to enhance safety, and the 136 AW works hard to ensure it's part of their operation. They use ORM to minimize and identify risks. They take required corrective action to eliminate or reduce the risk. Sometimes you don't want to accept the risk, but the mission must be accomplished. Then you must mitigate the risk to the lowest level possible. Slow down if you have to, and stop if necessary, to ensure safety. If you want ORM to be effective, you must keep constant reminders in front of the people to ensure they never let their guard down. ORM is an important tool for the 136 AW and the Air Force, but you must use it to be effective.

Corrective Action

The 136 AW is not a perfect organization and they have their problems, but the key is how they deal with these problems. Once a troop left a jumper wire on an aircraft. They found the problem and instead of looking for a head to cut off, leadership sat everyone down and discussed how it happened and how they, leadership and workers, could prevent it from happening again. They designed a critique process to prevent mistakes and Quality Assurance (QA) is part of that process.

Leadership uses QA results and self-imposed flight level Quality Verification Inspection (QVI) requirements to ensure they identify negative trends before they lead to a mishap. Maintenance has created an open concept of talking about mistakes to prevent mistakes. They put the person who made a mistake or failed a QVI in front of the people to talk about what happened. It's not a personal attack, but a critique of what happened, so everyone can learn and prevent recurrence. Everyone must lead by example in following tech data, and everyone watches everyone else. If mistakes or shortcuts are taken, they all work to stop the problem. From day one they work to instill good judgment in their people through communication and trust.

Summary

To sum up the 136 AW maintenance, I would say it is a unit that has created a family atmosphere that works together to ensure mission success, and the safety of their people and aircraft. CMSgt Terry Mitchell, QA Superintendent, "sums up the wing" very well; "It is a culture of tradition and heritage where people feel a responsibility to uphold what those who went before have accomplished." Leadership is leading by example and proving it on a daily basis. When you have brand new troops and 20-year veterans saying the same thing, you know they are working together. I was extremely impressed by what they do and what the rest of the Air Force can learn from them.

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