33rd HMU keeps helicopters airborne during Pacific Thunder

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Angelique Bilog
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  HH-60G helicopter maintainers ensure their helicopters stay fit to fly during Exercise Pacific Thunder. During the 10-day exercise, maintainers work round the clock to make sure the helicopters run properly, safely, and efficiently.

Thirty-three maintainers from the 33rd Helicopter Maintenance Unit at Kadena Air Base, Japan, escorted their helicopters to Osan Air Base, Korea, for Pacific Thunder -- an annual exercise that trains participating personnel and gauges their readiness in combat search and rescue task force tactics.

Chief Master Sgt. Jeremy Ravlin, 33rd HMU superintendent, said their mission remains virtually the same whether at home station, deployed or for Pacific Thunder.
"Our mission is to provide quality maintenance, make sure the aircraft are ready to fly and support their CSAR readiness mission here in Korea and our training back home," he said.

Ravlin said one of the unit's main objectives is to get all the new Airmen the training and experience they need to be on the road so they can be more effective for their upcoming deployment. This helps them to know what to expect and they can hit the ground running. It also allows them to make sure they're bringing the right people with the right qualifications, and the number of people to support the mission.

Senior Amn Jesus Ortiz, 33rd HMU HH-60 crew chief, said he loves what he does.

"I like going home tired with the feeling that I've actually accomplished something. This training helps me make sure I'm ready to go at a moment's notice, we always have to be ready and on alert so we can get the birds out as quickly as possible."

Ravlin said the biggest difference in operations between the exercise and everyday operations are the alert launches. There are only a few minutes between when the pilots get the order to launch and the aircraft taking off, so the maintainers need to have it ready to go at a moment's notice.

This training also provides the maintainers an opportunity to see the importance of their mission up close and how important it is to get the maintenance right the first time.

"If our guys don't know what the mission is and how important it is then it's just the daily grind and we don't do the daily grind," said the chief." They understand that saving lives, picking up pilots or whoever our customers may be, if we can't get that aircraft out to them, then we're useless. To be a professional maintainer, they have to understand how critical they are in supporting the combat search and rescue mission."

Staff Sgt. Corey Lewis, 33rd HMU helicopter crew chief and a shift lead for the exercise, says it's important to make sure his guys are trained up, especially for alert launches so when it comes time for the real thing, his guys know what they're doing.

"The main thing regarding this exercise is to focus on alert," said Lewis. When the bird lands we need to turn them around as quickly as possible, any write-ups that come down we need to fix, refuel, and get them ready to go so that when they get the call, they can launch.

Ravlin said he is proud of the operations-maintenance relationship in the helicopter world. He says it's very different than the rest of the Air Force. The 33rd HMU helicopter maintainers work in the same building at Kadena and work side-by-side in the desert and at Osan during PAC THUNDER. He said there's no better relationship between operations and maintenance in the Air Force.

"Our maintainers are extremely proud when they see that aircraft lift off. Our guys are pretty well prepared," said the chief. "Helicopter maintenance is typically unique to the air force, they're very self sufficient. Helicopters are designed to be operated and maintained in the field, there's no other air frame in the Air Force that's built that way. Our maintainers are better equipped to handle small problems or curveballs that are thrown at them to get around those obstacles and get the aircraft airborne, it's pretty impressive."