KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Ask any Airman what the key to airpower is and they will give you the one word answer.
Ask a member of the Air Force Reserve 803rd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, what the key to airpower is, and they will tell you about the first two weeks of the two-year-old squadron’s first deployment.
They will tell you about how a maintenance squadron, that's purpose is to maintain airplanes and keep them ready for any tasking that comes their way, kept a mission on track for two weeks while waiting for the delivery of the majority of their parts and equipment.
This is the scenario Lt. Col. Brian Horton, commander of the 803rd AMXS, and his team from the 403rd Wing were faced with at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in January.
The key to airpower, according to Gen. Giulio Douhet, an Italian airpower strategist who lived a century before the 803rd’s establishment, is flexibility.
Since its September 2016 induction into the 403rd Maintenance Group, flexibility has been a strong component in the function and success of the 803rd AMXS.
For a new squadron still in the process of recruiting members, the 803rd AMXS had to find a way to fulfill its first deployment mission, where they were tasked to maintain the C-130Js of the 815th Airlift Squadron, the “Flying Jennies”
“We reached across other squadrons to the other maintainers to get the experience that we needed to fill the slots,” said Horton, the Aircraft Maintenance Unit Officer in Charge during the deployment. “We do that all the time. We are one maintenance group, one team, one fight.”
The next obstacle was training many first-time deployers for the fast-paced environment the fast-approaching deployment would provide.
The squadron used exercises like Exercise Green Flag in Little Rock, Arkansas to simulate deployment conditions.
“Exercise Green Flag consisted of all of the personnel slated to deploy spending two weeks in Little Rock supporting 400 hours of flight time,” said Senior Master Sgt. James Dahl, a flight chief for the 803rd AMXS. “It was essentially an inspectable dry run to make sure the unit was prepared to deploy.”
The squadron continued to adapt and overcome when, in its first two weeks the parts and equipment the maintainers needed were delayed.
“How we overcame it was that we actually had to build relationships with the Qataris,” said Horton, referencing the Qatari Emiri Air Force. “They had J model C-130s, so we were able to borrow parts from those guys until eventually we got all of our equipment.”
Dahl said that the relationship with the Qatari airmen worked out well, and they were actually able to reciprocate the help and build a good relationship with them throughout their time there.
Back at Keesler the 803rd had its own challenges to overcome, but Senior Master Sgt. Jeffrey S. Rountree, assistant superintendent of the 803rd AMXS, praised the squadron’s ability to maintain both the aircraft and their resilient attitudes throughout the six months.
“We were not flying a heavy schedule, so we had just enough manpower to maintain the planes,” said Rountree. “The attitudes of the people here were great. They were ready to do anything and any mission that we had to do.”
Since their return in May, being even more prepared for the next deployment has been the goal of the 803rd AMXS’s leadership.
Horton said the biggest takeaway the squadron got from the deployment was the operational training, suggesting that the training a lot of the first-time deployers received was second to none, and a deeper understanding of their mission’s purpose.
“When you’re just going through weekend UTAs and training, you don’t necessarily fully understand what your mission is,” said Horton, “but when you go down range and you actually execute the mission you were designed to execute, that little light bulb comes on and gives the Airmen that ‘why.’”
Moving forward, leaders like Senior Master Sgt. Jason Boudreaux, a flight chief with the 803rd AMXS, hope to apply what they learned in the desert to training here and instill the “why” factor into the members who did not go on the deployment, so they will be more prepared for future deployments.
Horton said that throughout its short existence, the 803rd has transformed 180 degrees for the better. As leadership roles and organizational structure have changed, the squadron has flexed its adaptability and grown in efficiency and readiness.
“I was brought here to stand up this squadron as the first commander of the 803rd, and I don’t think I would change anything we have done in the last two years,” said Horton. “We have come a long way in the short two years we’ve been in existence. We’ve got great people in the squadron, and we’ve got great support from other squadrons, commanders, and the wing commanders as well. I’m thrilled and honored to be sitting where I am.”