314th Maintenance Group impresses inspectors

  • Published
  • By Bob Oldham
  • 19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
LITTLE ROCK AIR FORCE BASE, Ark. --  The 314th Maintenance Group impressed a 25-person team of Air Education and Training Command inspectors during the group's Logistics Compliance Assessment Program inspection, which assesses the group's compliance with directives governing the work they do.

The Group received a Satisfactory rating, and six Airmen received by-name recognition for their knowledge and expertise of their respective maintenance functions.

"I'm incredibly proud," said Col. Adam Dickerson, 314th Maintenance Group commander. "We didn't just receive a passing score. We came within 0.6 points of earning an Excellent rating in a new program, purpose-built to be tougher than previous inspections of this type."

He said Air Staff planners have made the inspection tougher, making a score higher than Satisfactory difficult.

"We were the first unit in AETC to be inspected under this program, and we set the bar pretty high," the colonel said. "The inspection team gave us a very thorough, fair look and pointed out a few areas where we need to focus improvement efforts. We'll do that, and the next time an inspection team looks at [the group], we'll do even better. More importantly, we'll be even better at our mission; providing expertly maintained, mission-ready aircraft to support the training of the world's best C-130 and C-21 combat airlifters." 

Receiving special recognition were Tech. Sgt. Guy Evans, Staff Sgt. Cody Bates, Staff Sgt. Jesse Jaynes, Senior Airman Juan Alegario, Senior Airman Brian Wilson and Airman 1st Class Jacob Reese, all of the 314th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

Along with the recognition of individual Airmen, the inspectors also recognized some processes within the group that are done extremely well.

"The team was pretty impressed with a tripod panel rack our people developed to safely store panels that would otherwise be much more susceptible to damage when removed from the aircraft during maintenance or inspection," the colonel said. "They also liked the visual management system we use in our bench stock that makes it immediately obvious when we've dropped to 50 percent of the level we should have on hand for key hardware, prompting our support flight personnel to order replenishment stock. While technically not a 'Best Practice' the team highlighted our maintenance training flight as the best active-duty training flight they'd seen in five years, going back to the previous inspection system."

Maintenance groups are inspected every three years. Between the 314 MXG and the C-21 squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., inspectors reviewed more than 1,000 inspection items.

The colonel pointed out that while he's proud of the Airmen in his group, more people on base had a stake in the outcome.

"I'd like to thank the rest of Team Little Rock for their outstanding support during this inspection," Colonel Dickerson said. "We couldn't have succeeded on this inspection without that support, just as we can't succeed without out it day to day."