News United States Air Force
 Maintenance key to combat airpower missionPublished June 13, 2015
                        
                        By Tech. Sgt. Joseph Swafford
                        
                        
                        455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
                **BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan  (AFNS) --**
                Maintainers deployed to the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing from their home station at Aviano Air Base, Italy, are always at work maintaining a squadron of combat-ready F-16 Fighting Falcons.
Maintainers are the first and last people pilots see when flying combat sorties; they’re always there to ensure the pilot has a properly functioning aircraft. Without these dedicated Airmen the combat airpower mission at Bagram Airfield would come to a halt.
“The main goal of maintenance is to give quality aircraft to aircrew at all times,” said Master Sgt. Martin Noel, the 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron production superintendent. “The style is the same as home station, just with a little more pep in our steps here due to the increased amount of flying we do and the fact the mission we do here is real compared to training back at our home station.”
The role maintenance Airmen play keeping the aircraft mission ready is critical to the 455th AEW, being able to deliver decisive airpower in support of NATO’s Resolute Support mission and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel.
“The mission would stop here without maintainers,” said Airman 1st Class Donal Cantero, a member of the 455th EAMXS. “We wouldn’t have operations and the jets wouldn’t be ready or available to complete the combat mission here.”
Being in a deployed environment brings extra challenges to the maintenance Airmen at Bagram.
“The tempo is significantly higher due to the amount of time we have to turn aircraft and that we’re a 24-hour flying operation here,” Noel said. “At home station we fly for a 12 hour period, then have a 12 hour period to fix the aircraft. Here there is no period to fix. We have to fix as we can and when moments arise.”
Even though being in a deployed environment brings extra challenges, the Airmen of the 455th EAMXS meet each challenge and keep the aircraft in the sky.
“The stress is a little higher in a deployed environment and there is a little more pressure because of the mission we’re doing here,” Noel said. “We train at home station and we also had two months of predeployment training in Las Vegas that prepped the maintainers quite well, and they’re handling the stress perfectly.”
The long hours pay off for the maintainers when they see their hard work take off and return to Bagram.
“I still love it, the hours come with the workload,” Cantero said. “You just push through and see the mission success rate go up. It gives a sense of pride seeing the jets take off in full afterburner, and then seeing them come back without bombs."
Noel added, “I’ve been doing it for 16 years now and still enjoy watching the birds take off, and I still take great pride in knowing the maintenance that my team is doing is quality maintenance.”Afghanistan 



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Bagram Airfield