Crew chiefs dedicated to maintaining pilot safety

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tong Duong
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  Quiet and reserved, Staff Sgt. Thomas Larson allows his work to do all the talking.

Braving the bitter December air, he preps his tools for his jet's return from a training mission. In charge of inspecting the aircraft from the pitot tube to the afterburner, the main responsibility of maintaining this aircraft lies solely with him.

Larson, a crew chief with the 14th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, was one of 40 maintainers who were recently selected to be dedicated crew chiefs for Misawa's F-16 Fighting Falcons.

The DCC title is earned by the crew chiefs who show, through their duty performance, they are the best the base has to offer -- those who have displayed the highest levels of initiative, job skills and knowledge needed to keep a multi-million dollar aircraft ready to go to war.

To be a DCC, an Airman must be a staff sergeant or higher with at least six months experience. A few top-notch senior airmen have been selected for this honor.

According to Master Sgt. Damian Braswell, 35th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, airframe powerplant general section chief, DCCs are the backbone of an aircraft maintenance squadron.

Larson, a native of McCook, Neb., not only gets his own jet to care for, but he's shown he's one of Misawa's top DCCs and earned the respected position of DCC for the Operations Group flagship aircraft.

"Working on a flagship is like an extension of you," he said. "Keeping the jet clean and 'top of the line,' allows me to showcase my pride."

The role of a crew chief is a very important and honored tradition, so much so that it predates the U.S. Air Force, said Col. Benjamin Davis, 35th Maintenance Group commander, while addressing Misawa's newest DCCs during a ceremony at the Bong Theater Dec. 2.

"To the crew chiefs, remember this moment as you have your names on the side of an F-16 Fighting Falcon, on a combat ready installation in the Pacific. I don't think it gets any better than that, so savor it," he said.

The DCC program was started to give the flightline maintainers some form of continuity, Braswell said.

"If you take one crew chief and put him on a different aircraft each day, the level of maintenance performed on the jet will be unknown to the next person who takes over the job," Braswell said. "By having a jet assigned to each crew chief, it gives them greater control on what's happening or still needs to be performed."

The creation of DCCs also forged a working bond between maintainer and pilot, said Braswell, a 19 year maintainer and prior DCC.

"They are the first person a pilot sees when they step to an aircraft and the first to welcome them home from a sortie," he said. "This elite group of Airmen selected to become DCCs have the responsibility to ensure their aircraft is in the best possible condition."

It's a responsibility that can mean the difference between life and death.

"What we do is important, because lives are depending on the quality of our work," Larson finished.

Equivalent to a pit crew for a race car driver, Larson marshals his aircraft to its parking spot in front of the hardened aircraft shelter. The pilot powers down the aircraft, disembarks, greets the DCC and chats about the aircraft.

Larson prepares to climb up to safe the cockpit, knowing it was his attention to detail and the work on "his aircraft" that allowed the pilot to return safely. To him, that feeling reaffirmed the emcee's words during the DCC ceremony - that the bond between crew chiefs and pilots has existed since the first plane took to the skies at Kitty Hawk, N.C.