The backbone in the background: SARM

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christian Corley
  • 33rd Fighter Wing
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  

While the F-35A Lightning II, its capabilities, and its pilots are often highlighted, it takes a combined effort from various shops to ensure the pilots are ready to fly. Since many shops work in the background, their impact on F-35A pilot production can sometimes go unrecognized. 

During the 58th Fighter Squadron’s temporary duty assignment to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Adam Stringfellow, 58th FS aviation and resource management  non-commissioned officer in charge, led the SARM office as they helped the F-35A Lightning II Basic-Course students complete their capstones for training. 

“My job is creating flight authorizations, which is the legal document detailing the mission and approval authority that states a person is legally allowed to conduct a mission,” said Stringfellow. “It also involves writing down codes and relaying them to maintenance when they are coming back from flight and keeping track of flight records.”

For F-35A pilots to execute a mission, they have to be knowledgeable about their aircraft and weapons, tactics, and devote time to ensuring their minds and bodies are mission-ready. With this amount of work required for pilots, tasking them with tracking the logistics of flying could lead to oversights.

“Let’s say that there is an aircraft emergency or an incident,” said Stringfellow. “The first thing that the authorities are going to want to know is why that person stepped to the aircraft if they were not good to go, and that’s where we come in.”

Stringfellow has been a SARM for seven years, and has worked in various real-world environments at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, and Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, prior to his arrival at Eglin AFB. 

“You have to pay extra close attention,” said Stringfellow. “It’s much busier here, with working the ops desk. We work hand-in-hand with the SARMs here to make sure all of our guys are good to go for their operations, as well as the 356th [Fighter Squadron] pilots.” 

The integration of the 58th and 356th SARMs required Stringfellow to make contact prior to arriving, ensuring that both units were prepared to work with each other. 

“I gave them the names of our pilots that came here to fly, and they put them into their systems,” said Stringfellow. “They’ve been instrumental in helping our guys log their flight hours. I think it’s important to work with them to understand teamwork and cooperation with other squadrons and bases around the world.”

The 58th SARM office’s contributions to F-35 pilot training help to forge the future of combat airpower.