Pride of the Pack: Staff Sgt. Melody Bedtke

  • Published
  • 8th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
KUNSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  Unit: Deployed to the 8th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron /14th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Unit here, from the 35th AMXS/14th AMU, Misawa Air Base, Japan

Duties: F-16 dedicated crew chief

Hometown: Chickamauga, Ga.

Hobbies: Traveling to new places and meeting new people

Favorite music: The Beatles and Jimmy Eat World

Follow on: None, deployed from Misawa

Last good movie you saw: "The Losers" ... so funny

Best thing you've done here: Attended Mudfest

Reason for nomination: "On Tuesday, July 20, Sergeant Bedtke discovered an augmentor spray bar on the ground while performing a foreign-object damage walk immediately after her aircraft launched. Knowing the requirement for no more than two missing spray bars at any given time, and knowing her aircraft so well that she was absolutely sure two were written up as missing, she responded as an exceptional dedicated crew chief should. She quickly notified the production superintendent on duty, relaying what she'd found and was certain that the aircraft needed to be recalled. The follow-on inspection revealed the augmentor spray bar was, in fact, the third one missing from her F-16. Her quick actions potentially prevented an aircraft mishap. Furthermore, she helped perform a one-time inspection on every jet's exhaust, looking for other spray bars missing or cracked. Her maintenance efforts to the Wolf Pack's and 14th Fighter Squadron's mission make her a perfect choice for this award." - Chief Master Sgt. Steven Ferrell, 8th AMXS superintendent