Nomads gear up for maintenance group inspection Published Aug. 13, 2007 By 2nd Lt. Jim Lambertsen 33d Fighter Wing Public Affairs EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla -- Beginning Aug. 13, a team of 26 active duty inspectors from Headquarters Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, Va., will descend upon the 33d Maintenance Group to inspect its maintenance practices. This inspection is known as the Logistics Standardization Evaluation Team Inspection. "The purpose of the LSET inspection is to confirm our compliance to regulations and ensure our maintenance discipline," said Col. John Powell, 33d MXG Commander. "This is important, because an effective and healthy maintenance program can only be built on basic maintenance disciplines." LSET inspections occur once every 18 months, and the last inspection occurred December 2005. The inspection looks at every major function of all three squadrons in the maintenance group. A few of the high visibility focus areas include training, the Hazardous Materials Program, the Foreign Object Damage Prevention Program and maintenance scheduling. "The LSET inspection examines our day-to-day activities. For example, we need to validate all Air Force Instructional requirements for each flight, making sure we're crossing all our 't's' and dotting all our 'i's,'" said Senior Master Sgt. Jay Mason, 33d Maintenance Squadron Armament Flight Chief. The wing began preparing for the LSET inspection eight months ago. Preparation entailed the creation of an internal inspection team to mirror that of the LSET inspection team with 33d Fighter Wing "inspectors" going through every functional area to ensure any discrepancies are found and corrected. "Our mock inspection team was able to create a database of any discrepancies found to allow us to monitor and track them until they are corrected," said Maj. Sarah Williams, 33d Aircraft Maintenance Squadron Maintenance Operations Officer. "Not only have we been preparing for the LSET, but we have been very busy executing the mission at hand." In addition to time spent preparing for the LSET, the 33d MXG has worked nine temporary duty assignments in the past year. During those assignments, which are on top of the wing's local training sorties, the group boasted an average mission capable percentage of about 90 percent, with nearly 2,000 sorties flown. The operations tempo won't slow for the actual inspection. "While the LSET team is here, we will be supporting homeland defense, as well as preparing for a two-week deployment supporting the Weapons Instructor Course at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada," Colonel Powell said. "These real world operations will take priority over our evaluation and make our LSET focus difficult; but that is the reality of our operations tempo as a nation at war." Following the inspection, the LSET does not generate a final grade, but will report any discrepancies found. "It is my hope the team will verify what I already know; the 33d Nomads have the best maintenance practices and responsiveness in the USAF," Colonel Powell said. The LSET inspection runs Aug. 13-16 and wraps up with a briefing of the report Aug. 17.