Air Force aircraft maintainers at Bagram AB, Afghanistan are lending the kind of in-lieu-of support envisioned by Air Force leaders—they are helping Army and Navy maintainers with aircraft repairs. Airmen of the 455th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron started out loaning tools and providing supplies to soldiers who maintain CH-47s, but SSgt. Craig Seals reports that wear and tear and mishaps “created a manpower shortage” for Army structural maintainers, so the 455th airmen began lending a hand. And, when the Navy needed to bend some hydraulic tubing lines for its aircraft, the airmen stepped in.
The roles and missions executed by Air Force warriors are essential to the nation’s security. Yet after three decades of constant demand and minimal replenishment, our Air Force is too small and too old. It needs to be rebuilt. The Trump administration and Congress must fund that modernization to ensure…