37th AMU succeeds downrange

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Nathan Gallahan
  • 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  Without fail, Airmen from the 37th Aircraft Maintenance Unit successfully provided an unprecedented 585 Air Tasking Orders for theater commanders while deployed with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing from January through July 2011.

The 585 orders marked a perfect record. Every time a combatant commander needed an aircraft, the 37th AMU provided one. For their hard work, success and dedication, they were named AMU of the Month consecutively for six months.

Master Sgt. Ray Thompson, 37th AMU production superintendent, said the perfect ATO record and winning the AMU of the month award six months straight are both firsts for the B-1B community.

"The important thing here isn't that we won the awards," Thompson said. "The important thing is every ATO got off the ground. The AMUs pretty much set a goal before we deployed - zero lost ATOs - and we did it."

To accomplish the goal, the 130-plus Ellsworth Airmen of the AMU worked 12-hour shifts, six-days-a-week in temperatures reaching 124 degrees at times.

"It was a whole lot of hard work, but with everyone coming together it made it a whole lot easier ... it was the only reason we were able to do it," said Senior Airman Chris Orr, 37th AMU electric and environmental specialist. "As a deployed unit, everybody was a team. Anytime any other shop needed a hand, there was always someone there willing to help. It seemed like everybody said, 'Yes, this is what we want to do, let's work and get this done.'"

To the 37th AMU maintainers sweating it out on the flightline, accomplishing ATOs wasn't something they did before they went back to their rooms, it was the reason they were deployed.

"I took [the ATOs] personally because after my first deployment, I knew what it felt like to drop one," Orr said. "It's just a terrible feeling. With each ATO you know you're helping other people and trying to protect lives on the ground. You're helping people you'll probably never meet. When you drop a line, you're letting a whole team down. To make it a whole deployment without dropping a single ATO was a huge, outstanding achievement."