Misawa Air Base, Japan -- Misawa Air Base conducts daily mission essential air combat training and members from the 35th Logistics Readiness Squadron (LRS) Materiel Management Flight work behind the scenes to ensure base personnel have mission required equipment.
The 35th LRS Materiel Management Flight, also known as M-Flight, is responsible for stocking, storing, issuing, managing, inventorying, shipping, and inspecting Department of Defense supplies, equipment, munitions, and fuels.
M-Flight consists of three separate sections - maintenance support, asset management, and customer service support - allowing Misawa Air Base to stay supplied and ready to accomplish the mission.
Members from the maintenance support section work alongside various maintenance units across base to ensure they are properly supplied and prepared with sufficient parts.
“We primarily focus on providing maintenance shops on the flight line with immediate mission capable assets,” said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Khayruddiyn Bancroft, a 35th LRS M-Flight Decentralized Materiel Support (DMS) technician. “We ensure unserviceable assets are sent to proper back shops or depots to either get repaired or shipped for disposition, while simultaneously entering new assets into the supply chain.”
The DMS section acts as a liaison between materiel management and maintenance units on the flight line providing 24-hour support for any equipment maintainers may need on the spot.
M-Flight provides more than direct flight line support. The asset management section contains the individual protective equipment (IPE) section. They maintain and provide essential equipment to base personnel for deployments and readiness exercises, which improve and enhance the base’s defense capabilities.
The IPE section handles a wide variety of equipment ranging from the chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) equipment distributed to every service member, to weapons for the 35th Security Forces Squadron.
“Our job is always executing base readiness,” said U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Shamaurya Farr, a 35th LRS M-Flight IPE journeyman. “We ensure all Airmen are prepared and mission ready, whether it be for chemical warfare or deploying service members out of Misawa Air Base.”
The customer service support section is responsible for equipment accountability and respond to customer’s logistics concerns, working proactively to anticipate problems that could stand in the way of wing units fulfilling the mission.
Bancroft added most M-Flight members will switch sections throughout their career, so maintaining a sense of adaptability will help service members in the career field.
“You can go to any section at any time so you are constantly moving around,” said Bancroft. “But you’re also learning each job and how they complement each other, becoming more proficient throughout your career.”
Despite the several different sections and service members, M-Flight has one goal: maintaining and supplying multiple critical assets and equipment across base to ensure Misawa Air Base always reaches its overall mission.