Page 7 - Nellis AFB Bullseye 9-11-15

BULLSEYE Feature 7September 11, 2015

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U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Mikaley Kline AMT, from page 6 __________________ metals technologists because the performance
work statement requires the use of space and
Rich Samanich, 57th Maintanence Group aircraft metals technology lead, things, but the bottom line here is that if we get equipment.”
cuts through metal at the Aircraft Metals Technology shop on Nellis involved, the item must be pretty broken.”
Air Force Base, Nev., Sept. 3. Metals technology requires precision and The technologists at AMT must have experi-
attention to detail. Having an AMT shop on base helps save ence working with aircraft before they can get
money and keeps the mission rolling. hired.

“We fix so many things and without the shop “We’re contractors and all of us have gone
being here, the mission would definitely slow through Air Force technical schools,” said Sa-
down and it would cost a lot more money to go manich. “For here, we need to be experienced
to a shop downtown,” said Samanich. “We fix on the various air frames and we require about
everything from wrenches and test equipment eight years of experience on those aircraft. The
to regular special tools for other shops on base. welders have to be certified every five years.”
Without us there would be a lot of stuff that
would go unfixed for a long time.” One thing that makes the AMT shop at Nellis
AFB unique is that they get to work on all the
At Nellis AFB, AMT supports seven aircraft different air frames.
maintenance units, phase inspection activities,
the 57th Maintenance Squadron’s munitions “We probably have the most variety of any
flight as well as the back shops, leaving little to other base in the Air Force,” said Samanich. “We
no down time. also share our shop with other people, while
most other places may not.”
“We can do about four to five aircraft jobs in
one shift and we have three shifts in a day,” said After putting countless hours and hard work
Samanich. “We run 24 hours a day, five days a into helping repair broken aircraft parts, the
week, with daytime shifts running on Saturday reward for many of the shop’s workers is seeing
and Sunday.” an aircraft get safely back into the sky.

The contractors at AMT oversee the shop and “Some people say we are the modern day
are responsible for everything there, but they blacksmiths of the Air Force,” said Reeder. “We
also share the shop with three other military fix aircraft with fire, water, electricity and cre-
organizations plus any TDY units that need to ativity. We have the coolest toys in the Air Force
utilize it. including Vertical Milling Centers, a water jet
cutter, plasma arc cutters, and just about every
“The rescue squadrons, Thunderbirds, and type of welder made. We have the opportunity
RED HORSE will sometimes use the shop,” to learn new things every day. Our career field
said Samanich. “Red Flag, Green Flag, and is like the game of golf, you get better the longer
TDY components will bring their own aircraft you do it, but you will never master it.”

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