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Alaska Reserve Maintainers hang with the HIANG

  • Published
  • By Maj. Ashley Conner
  • 477th Fighter Group Public Affairs
Maintainers from the 477th Maintenance Squadron recently returned from Hawaii where they were working with the active duty and Hawaii Air National Guard F-22 maintainers to help increase sortie generation during the deployment of the Hawaiian Raptors.

"The primary purpose of our being there was to provide added manning in their respective AFSC's to facilitate the execution of both the aircraft maintenance and flying schedules," said Chief James Pineault, 477th MXS, chief enlisted manager. "This effort made it possible for the HIANG pilots to maintain their currency."

The Reserve brought much needed five and seven level aircraft maintenance experience from flight supervision, aircraft production supervision, flight line avionics, crew chief, weapons and supply specialists to name a few.

"Our maintainers love to teach, mentor, train, and generate sorties," said Capt. Kinsey Jacobs 477th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, director of operations. "We were able to seamlessly integrate ourselves into the HIANG work flow within 24 hours of being on the ground."

Integrating maintainers from two different commands could have been challenging but any adversity was easily overcome.

"The 154th welcomed the 477th in, made us feel needed and a part of their team. From our first day on the 154th flight line to our last, it had seemed that our two commands have been working jointly together as one maintenance group for years," said Kinsey. "The effort provided the 154th MXG to operate and manage two maintenance shifts and flying schedule."

During their three weeks together the combined units were able to fly 97% of the sorties scheduled and increase the mission capable rate by 20 percent.