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The smell of coffee, sweat and hydraulic fluid permeates
the air. Music echoes in the background: the beat gaining
momentum as the night drags on. Workers in oil-stained
coveralls and latex gloves swarm the hangar wielding tools
befitting a surgeon's operating table.
The hours grow
long and the coffee brews stronger. The prickling sense of
urgency lingers as grease-covered hands dissect the beast's
anatomy: every turn of the wrench is precise, calculated.
Each stitch buys one more flight, one more mission and one
more safe return.
This endurance race is all too
familiar for the crew determined to prolong CG1720's
long-awaited journey to the boneyard.
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U.S. Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules taken at Lajes Air Base (Terceira Island) in the Azores,
July 23, 2005. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Jo�o Eduardo Sequeira)
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“This is time
consuming and difficult work,” said Petty Officer 1st Class
Joseph Ramsey, maintenance supervisor. “I've been on
deployments where in a 30-day period, the plane gets
grounded twice. On other deployments, the plane gets
grounded after every flight. It can be really maintenance
intensive and it can wear on the crew because it seems like
you just can't catch a break.”
Ramsey and the other
10 members of this aircrew from
Air Station Barbers Point are on a 14-day counter
narcotics deployment in Central America. Time is a luxury
they cannot afford to waste.
“We all understand the
importance of getting this plane mission ready,” said Petty
Officer 1st Class Chris Marquez, an
avionics electrical technician. “This aircraft needs to
fly so that it can support the Coast Guard's missions.”
Aircrews routinely conduct operations from South America
to the Bering Sea conducting alien migrant interdiction
operations, domestic fisheries protection, search and
rescue, counter-narcotics and other Coast Guard missions at
great distances from shore keeping threats far from the U.S.
mainland or ensuring mariners return home.
Whether at home or deployed in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, the
crew works around the clock to ensure the plane can fly. During the
two-week deployment, the crew worked 325 maintenance hours to get
their bird off the ground.
Adaptability may be the Coast
Guard's unofficial motto as the service that continues to do more
with less but, for this crew, it's a necessity. Keeping this
28-year-old plane flying is a combination of hard work,
determination and, yes, the adaptability of her crew.
“The
work is challenging and a lot of times we come across problems we
aren't familiar with like overhauling a strut or conducting
maintenance on the oxygen system,” continued Marquez. “We aren't at
home plate so it's up to us to make sure the plane is safe and ready
to go. A lot of it is learning as we go and being familiar with the
manuals and maintenance procedure cards.”
Mistakes could cost
them their lives so they are meticulous, ensuring everything is done
by the book. Each step is carefully outlined, checked and rechecked.
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Crew members aboard an HC-130 Hercules airplane from Air Station
Barbers Point monitor surveillance equipment for suspected of drug
trafficking in the Eastern Pacific, Jan. 25, 2016. Military patrol
aircraft search for drug traffickers around the clock in an attempt
to reduce illegal drug activity in the region. (U.S. Coast Guard
photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa E. McKenzie)
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Nothing can be left to chance: everything is life or
death. The job doesn't get done if the plane doesn't fly and
each person plays a critical role in keeping her off the
ground. Those crews are lean. With around 36,000 active duty
service members Coast Guard-wide, everyone is essential
personnel.
“One big difference between the Coast
Guard and other services is that we don't bring extra
bodies,' said Lt. Eric Casida, aircraft commander. “Our
bodies bring extra uniforms.”
The crew works through
the night stripping down her landing gear to overhaul the
left strut. Pieces of her spread across the white surface of
the hangar floor. Rags lie scattered beneath her collecting
the pink, oily substance seeping from her joints. This
carefully executed surgery draws to an end. Piece by
painstaking piece they put her back together again.
Morning light falls on her skin as they wheel her onto the
runway. Now wearing green, the crew steps aboard and tests
her wings for flight. They are off on the hunt ...
check out how
the CG1720's crew searches the Eastern Pacific Ocean for
drug smugglers.
By U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer 2nd Class Melissa E. McKenzie
Provided
through DVIDS
Copyright 2016
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