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Ammo, keepers of wing's ka-boom

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Phillip O. Butterfield
  • 33d Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  After a flight, a familiar sight is the 33d Maintenance Squadron munitions trucks with missile trailers making their rounds delivering requested weapons to the loaders on the flightline.

This daily exchange is the driving force behind 33d MXS munitions, which supplies the 33d Fighter Wing's weapons loaders with the weapons needed to arm F-15s. And an armed F-15C Eagle means the pilots can carry out the wing's mission. 

"Whether it's a training mission or an Operation Noble Eagle tasking, we supply the flightline weapons loaders with the missiles, 20 mm M61A1 gun rounds and chaff and flare modules that they requested to accomplish the mission," said Senior Airman Theresa Velasquez, 33d MXS precision-guided munitions crew member. 

"Ammo," a nickname affectionately given to munitions Airmen across the Air Force, performs numerous duties besides delivering requested munitions to the flightline.
Ammo supports the 33d FW's mission by performing maintenance on both live and Captive Air Training Munitions 9 M and X models of the Sidewinder missile and the CATM-120 missile. 

The 89 Airmen who work in the wing's munitions area are responsible for more than $140 million in weapons, not including 16 custodial accounts worth $22 million. These high-dollar warfighting assets are spread over a 35-acre storage area. 

Ammo maintains this stockpile through detailed inventories, defect inspections and trips to the paint booth, which aid in identification and prevention of corrosion, Airman Velasquez added. 

Ammo also maintains pre-loaded munitions trailers for quicker delivery to the flightline. Depending on the request, they can deliver a mixture of eight to 10 missiles on each trailer as well as bring malfunctioning weapons back for testing. 

"When the flightline reports that a missile is not working properly, like the pilots not receiving a tone, the seeker head not tracking the targets or some other malfunction, we can bring the missile back to the shop and determine the problem using different test computers and cable assemblies, hopefully fixing the problem," said Airman Velasquez. "If we can't fix the problem through reprogramming or changing the seeker head on the CATM 9 weapons, then we need to send the weapon to depot."
After the aircraft comes down, weapons load crew members account for all the weapons expended and have their expeditor call ammo with a list of weapons they need. 

"Ammo makes our job easier. We don't have to go anywhere, and we can stay focused on our jobs. We couldn't do it without them," said Staff Sgt. Keith Bowie, 58th Aircraft Maintenance Unit weapons load crew member. 

The 33d MXS munitions doesn't just make weapons load crews' jobs easier, they make the wing's mission happen by delivering the best product possible. 

"I've never been more impressed with a group of people. I've never seen a more focused team -- one team, one fight," said 2nd Lt. Ryan Hardy, 33d MXS munitions flight commander.