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'Y’all don’t know us!'

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Conor Gray
  • 373rd Training Squadron
JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. --  When you are sitting at a 305th Air Mobility Wing award ceremony and each squadron is doing their "rally cry" and the proffer calls out "373rdTRS/DET 301," you will hear a small group of noncommissioned officers defiantly yell: "Y'all don't know us!"

Not many people on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst know who we are or what we do. We provide Community College of the Air Force accredited, full-spectrum aerospace maintenance training to the American warfighter and international partners and specialize in KC-10 Extender and C-17 Globemaster III aircraft. That translates to 42 different aircraft maintenance- and faculty-development courses; taught to military, civilian and international students.

To the 982nd Training Group and the 373rd Training Squadron at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, we are Detachment 301. We refer to ourselves as Det 1 because "number 1 by choice" is our motto. We have been operating on McGuire since the late 1950's and for the first time in our history, we won Detachment of the Year out of 48 Dets.

Det 301 is comprised of 25 instructors, two Military Training Leaders, and quite possibly the best executive assistant on JB MDL. You would be hard pressed to find 25 people in any unit with their CCAF. Out of our 27 detachment personnel, 25 have at least two CCAF degrees, and two are within one class of earning theirs.
 
In 2012, Det 301 taught an amazing 20,397 hours, graduating 412 students through 138 classes. This is a record breaking number of hours taught by Det 1 is it's 50 year history. This was a one of contributing factors to winning the 982nd Training Group's Detachment of the Year for 2012.

The road to Detachment of the Year started with Det 301 winning the 373rd TRS Detachment of the Quarter for the third quarter for 2012. Our C-17 instructor trained personnel from Memphis Air National Guard and Stewart ANG from scratch on the C-17 aircraft.

We volunteered more than 100 hours in the local community doing park cleanups and assisting at local food banks. Our members won three squadron, three group, two wing, four associate unit awards in 2012. Senior Master Sgt. John McCoy, leader of the Detachment, had this to say about the accomplishments:

"We earned Det of the Year because we collectively reached outside of our traditional norms and seized bigger and better opportunities. Plus we have a hand-selected group of motivated maintainers/professionals that never rest and embrace vision and continual improvement. Our ability to introduce international/NATO students to Team McGuire. In relation to other C-17 bases, McGuire's fleet is considered small. Our reputation and aggressiveness was key to seizing "big" C-17 base opportunities. This is a case where the underdog won. Also, we own one of two KC-10 Air Force Source Code awarding courses. We deliver maintenance-ready Airmen who are fit-to-fight, and 100 percent prepared for the challenges of today's Air Force."

You might not be familiar with 373rd TRS, and maybe even slightly irritated with dealing with geographically separated personnel and all the exceptions they might create, but when you hear "Ya'll don't know us!" you'll be hearing some of the best Air Education and Training Command instructors the Air Force has to offer.