373 TRS Det. 1, 305 MOS collocate to teach C-17, KC-10 maintenance Published June 29, 2007 By Senior Airman Danielle Johnson 305th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- "Leaner" times call for, well, teamwork. With construction completed in May on their new facility, the 305th Maintenance Operations Squadron and 373rd Training Squadron Det. 1, epitomize the concept of working together. "We are two organizations that do a similar mission, even though we are two different MAJCOMs," said Tech. Sgt. William Wroble, NCO in charge of the 305th's maintenance qualification training program. "We're now in one facility where we can be more effective and share resources." One light bill equals big savings, not just in dollars but also time. The $7.5 million facility features three maintenance training devices that allow maintenance students to accomplish the bulk of their training in the classroom, so to speak, reducing the need for operational aircraft down time. "The gist of maintenance training is you have to break something and then teach somebody how to fix it," Sergeant Wroble said. "If we can contribute to the direct production effort -- repair items that are going to get repaired anyway -- then that's a great thing. But sometimes we have to go out there and take serviceable units apart and put them back together, and that's where the trainers really make money for us because we don't have to break an airplane, so the flightline can use that airplane to fly missions." "Previously, the majority of the training was accomplished on operational aircraft," said Senior Master Sgt. Daniel Blood, 373 TRS Det. 1 detachment chief. "The instructors would request an aircraft for students to work on and part of the aircraft would be 'broken' so the students could fix it, in some cases creating follow-on maintenance before the aircraft is returned to mission capable status. The maintenance trainers allow students as much time as they need to train on the 'aircraft' while keeping more of McGuire's C-17 (Globemasters) available for mission requirements." The three maintenance training devices, which are lifelike computerized replicas of actual C-17 aircraft sections, have a combined cost of about $33 million, compared to the $203.3 million price tag of a C-17. The two units teach maintenance on both the C-17 and the KC-10. The KC-10 training is still accomplished on actual aircraft; since McGuire has more of them, the training requirements have less of an impact on mission requirements. Some C-17 training is still accomplished on actual aircraft -- mostly recurring maintenance tasks such as servicing, tire and brake changes, and aircraft configurations. Having the students do the recurring maintenance frees up the flightline crews for other, more critical jobs, Sergeant Blood said. "The trainers make our mission a lot easier, not only for the flightline not having to provide us an aircraft as often, but training can be conducted in a controlled environment," said Sergeant Blood. "It's a lot safer. (We) can control what the students do; (we) can let the students make a mistake without damaging an operational aircraft." In this case, everybody wins. By simply combining two units with similar missions in one, state-of-the-art facility, aircraft and flightline crews are made available for mission requirements and students get a top-notch education in aircraft maintenance.