Keeping Warthogs in the Fight

Airmen with the 451st Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron maintenance flight at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, are performing top-notch work on a daily basis to keep the A-10 ground-attack platforms operating from there flying. “The maintenance flight is a team of first-rate Air Force professionals and I am lucky and proud to have served with them,” said SMSgt. David Wade, the flight’s chief. They have been able to slash the time it takes to perform certain tasks. For example, A-10 phase inspections, thorough looks at an aircraft’s structural integrity and condition, normally require about eight to 10 duty days to complete. But these airmen, working in shifts around the clock, have finished the work in as little as 55 hours, said TSgt. Emery Makany, the 451st EMS phase section chief. (Kandahar report by SSgt. Angelique N. Smythe)