Page 20 - Luke AFB Thunderbolt August 2016

August 2016 FEATURE Thunderbolt
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Crews vie for competition best

by Airman 1st Class maintenance units of the 56th Maintenance to see what we can do, and it makes us bet- fun, and it reminds us that our work gets
RIDGE SHAN Group competed to be the rst to complete ter at our job.” noticed.”
the loading of weapons onto an F-16 ghting
56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs Falcon or an F-35 Lightning II. Staff Sgt. Trumain Cox, 309th AMU Airman Evan Holder, 309th AMU weap-
weapons load crewmember, feels the event ons load crewmember, agrees that the
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. — The “The competition brings the whole weap- improves maintainers’ moods. competition is helpful for exposing the load
annual Second Quarter Weapons Load ons community together and gives us some- crew career eld to other members of the
Crew Competition took place July 1 on the thing to compete for,” said Airman 1st Class “Having a little competition where ev- Luke community.
Theodore Reyes, 61st Aircraft Maintenance eryone can go out and show off and have
ightline at Luke Air Force Base. Unit weapons load crewmember. “We’re able everyone cheer you on really raises your “Some people think we have an easy
Teams composed of Airmen from aircraft spirits and boosts morale,” Cox said. “It’s job,” Holder said. “When they come out to
watch us during the competitions, they see
A weapons load crew from the 309th AMU loads an inert AIM-120 air-to-air missile onto an F-16 during the competition. what we do and we end up getting a lot of
admiration from them.”

Teams were judged by criteria that
included speed, adherence to procedure,
teamwork and precision. In order to excel,
teams had to demonstrate the ability to
communicate effectively in a high-stress
environment.

“Your load crew needs to have a good
ow,” Reyes said. “Everyone needs to be
able to trust each other to do their jobs so
you can focus on doing yours.”
“Communication and trust are key,” Cox
said. “As a crew leader, if my crewmember
knows 100 percent of his job, I only need
to know 50 percent of it to be able to help
him catch slips.”
The F-35, being a newer and more ad-
vanced platform, presented different tech-
nical requirements for the 61st AMU team
who loaded it.
“Between the F-35 and the F-16, we have
different manuals and methods for how to
load, but we’re ultimately doing the same
thing,” Reyes said. “The differences are
small enough that a loader from one plane
should be able to simply learn how to load
the other.”
As Luke transitions from the F-16 to the
F-35, eventual load crew competitions will
feature the F-35 exclusively.
Once scores from the competition are
compiled, the second quarter’s winning
team will be announced and advance to
the wing-level competition to compete for
the 2016 title.

Staff Sgt. Trumain Cox, 309th Aircraft Maintenance Unit load crew Staff Sgt. Mark Beyer, 61st AMU load crew leader, and Airman 1st Class Theodore Reyes, 61st AMU
leader, shouts directions to crewmembers July 1 during the annual load crewmember, prepare an inert bomb for loading onto an F-35 during the competition.
Second Quarter Load Crew Competition at Luke Air Force Base. The
competition pitted teams from different AMUs against each other in
a race to complete the loading of weapons first onto either an F-16
Fighting Falcon or an F-35 Lightning II.