Maintainers help Reserve Command secure excellence award for second straight year

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  • By Public Affairs
PITTSBURGH IAP ARS --  For the second year in a row, the Air Force Reserve Command was named the Gen. Wilbur L. Creech Maintenance Excellence Award winner.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz hosted the 2009 award ceremony in the Pentagon March 11. Receiving the award was Col. T. Glenn Davis, former director of AFRC Logistics (A4).

In presenting the award, General Schwartz highlighted the challenges AFRC logistics readiness and maintenance Airmen face. Reservists fly "nearly every aircraft in the inventory," the general said, "including missions unique to them, like aerial firefighting."

General Schwartz noted that the Creech Award is special because "nobody puts together a glossy awards" package. "It's about the numbers and who performed the best," he said. According to the award citation, AFRC officials improved the logistics support of combat readiness for 38 flying units throughout the command, including support for 385 aircraft and more than 26,500 logistics Airmen.

The "True North" aircraft maintenance and scheduling initiative increased in the number of Reserve aircraft available, from 193 to more than 230 aircraft per day, the citation said. This process resulted in fly-to-fly days dropping from 100 to less than 20 days on legacy C-5 Galaxy inspections. The average fly-to-fly days for C-130 Hercules aircraft fell from an average of more than 40 days to fewer than 25 days with one benchmark producing fly-to-fly times under 10 days at the 911th Airlift Wing here in Pittsburgh.

The 911th's fly-to-fly times, or aircraft availability cost savings, combined with labor cost savings was estimated at approximately $10 million for 2009. While supporting Overseas Contingency Operations maintainer, Chief Master Sgt. Terrance Keblish, e-mailed other fellow maintainers serving overseas and at home praising their efforts in support of the award.

"The award to the command reflects our maintainers dedication to the mission and the staggering impact their work has had within the Air Force Reserve Command and Air Force- wide with regard to our ISO process improvement process," said Chief Keblish.

"Our aircraft spent 258 days less in ISO in 2008 than they did in 2007 and our maintainers have improved in each successive year, which translates into savings fleet-wide," Chief Keblish added.

Adding to the significance of the 911th's benchmark program was that in 2007, the Wing transferred their C-130 H2s to Pope Air Force Base and received older model H2s from the 137th Airlift Wing, Oklahoma Air National Guard, as part of an AFRC fleet-wide C-130 redistribution initiative.

"Having a maintainer lose their only assigned aircraft would be the equivalent to seeing your life-long best friend move away. You know all their quirks, strengths and anomalies and now you have to start over...this time with a new plane," said Col. Gordon H. Elwell, Jr., 911th Air Lift Wing commander. "But our maintainers are top-notch Airmen and they have stepped-up to the challenge and this award symbolizes their professionalism," said Col. Elwell.

The award represents the results of the numbers accomplished by the unit members who do the work and tell the story, all of which has added to a profound bottom line as noted by Chief Keblish.

"The bottom line is our maintainers made a difference in our Air Force and for that I am very proud of each and every one of them and what they have accomplished," Chief Keblish concluded.