Team Work
Team Work Milton A Dillard Grantham University
I'm jet lagged and tired. My alarm goes off, a screeching "beep, beep, beep!" I get out of bed, turn the alarm off, and begin my routine - coffee, shower, flight suit, bag drag from the lobby to the crew bus. Once all bags are loaded onto the airplane, we head over to base operations for our crew brief. Crew brief is complete and its back to the aircraft, so I can refuel, inspect, and then take off. This is my life as a C-17A Flying Crew Chief (FCC) stationed at Travis AFB CA. You're a jack of all trades when you're an FCC. The C-17A is a large military transport aircraft. It performs strategic airlift missions, and transports troops and cargo throughout the world. When on these types of missions, I'm usually gone from one to two weeks depending on whats going on in the world. There was a mission that took us from California to South Carolina to pick up Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. We crew rested there before we started our
TEAM WORK
journey "across the pond" (Atlantic Ocean) with Spain as our next destination. I'm flying with a reserve unit I have flown with on many occasions, so there is a great deal of trust and cohesiveness between the crew members. On this mission we are headed to Afghanistan. This is my 40th mission to Afghanistan. I'm upstairs in the flight deck sitting behind the pilot with my headset on just looking at the desert view out the window, when the pilot said "chief could you keep an eye out for muzzle fire and Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs), because we are a few miles out from the base". This is routine procedure when going into hot zones. We are a big grey target in the air. Needless to say we landed with no problems. Afghanistan has a smell so weird, like burning trash mixed with super dry air and a funk of some sort. I get off of the plane and do my walk around, and as I help the load master offload the vehicles, more cargo is uploaded and we're off to another location in
I'm jet lagged and tired. My alarm goes off, a screeching "beep, beep, beep!" I get out of bed, turn the alarm off, and begin my routine - coffee, shower, flight suit, bag drag from the lobby to the crew bus. Once all bags are loaded onto the airplane, we head over to base operations for our crew brief. Crew brief is complete and its back to the aircraft, so I can refuel, inspect, and then take off. This is my life as a C-17A Flying Crew Chief (FCC) stationed at Travis AFB CA. You're a jack of all trades when you're an FCC. The C-17A is a large military transport aircraft. It performs strategic airlift missions, and transports troops and cargo throughout the world. When on these types of missions, I'm usually gone from one to two weeks depending on whats going on in the world. There was a mission that took us from California to South Carolina to pick up Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles. We crew rested there before we started our
TEAM WORK
journey "across the pond" (Atlantic Ocean) with Spain as our next destination. I'm flying with a reserve unit I have flown with on many occasions, so there is a great deal of trust and cohesiveness between the crew members. On this mission we are headed to Afghanistan. This is my 40th mission to Afghanistan. I'm upstairs in the flight deck sitting behind the pilot with my headset on just looking at the desert view out the window, when the pilot said "chief could you keep an eye out for muzzle fire and Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs), because we are a few miles out from the base". This is routine procedure when going into hot zones. We are a big grey target in the air. Needless to say we landed with no problems. Afghanistan has a smell so weird, like burning trash mixed with super dry air and a funk of some sort. I get off of the plane and do my walk around, and as I help the load master offload the vehicles, more cargo is uploaded and we're off to another location in