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It’s an interesting thing about the 435th Materiel Maintenance Squadron – they must work every day as if someone’s life depended on it. Because, it does.
They are a small squadron – barely 100 strong. But, the 435th MMS stores and maintains nearly $900 million worth of War Reserve Materiel for U.S. Air Forces in Europe. That’s everything from humvees to tanks to kitchen sinks and it fills 13 football field-size warehouses and accounts for 85 percent of all the War Reserve Materiel owned by the Air Force.
***image1***When MMS gets the call, there is no time to dust off a piece of equipment and find out if it works. That call means equipment has got to move and move fast, said Lt. Col. Kevin Gaudette, 435th MMS commander.
“If just one piece of equipment is not up to spec, the whole operation falls apart,” he said.
So, they make sure that every piece of equipment in the U.S. stockpile of War Reserve Materiel is ready at a moment’s notice. They make sure it is ready when the call comes to set up base camps to support 500 troops, evacuate thousands of people from Lebanon, support the NATO Riga Summit or send ground support to the Sudan.
“We are on the hook for having the right equipment, having it ready to go and getting it there quickly,” Colonel Gaudette said.
When Colonel Gaudette was first assigned to the 435th MMS, he hadn’t heard much about it. Not a lot of people have, he said. They work at Sembach and the majority of the equipment they maintain is housed in Luxembourg. You name it, they’ve got it – vehicles, aerospace ground equipment, fuels mobility support packages, tanks and Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resources kits that can support 550-person camps.
They check it and recheck it. They maintain all equipment up to current Air Force standards. And that means that this little known, one-of-a-kind squadron brings together Airmen in 34 career fields – from mechanics to plumbers to engineers. They work out of seven buildings on Sembach, away from the rest of the wing. And, it takes a certain kind of mindset to work with a sense of urgency, even when the calls only come about once a month.
So here’s what they do, they said. They imagine that it’s them downrange reaching for that loader, launcher or pylon. And that makes it easy to stay motivated when they look out at the sea of inventory that needs to be maintained.
“The last thing I want is to send a bunch of equipment downrange and not have it work,” said Senior Airman Sean Tobin, with the Aerospace Ground Equipment flight.
Sure, a lot of Airmen have never heard of the MMS, said Tech. Sgt. Louis Famiglietti, with the Inspection and Compliance flight.
“But, when you deploy, everything you have comes from our unit,” he said. “Our fingerprints are on everything.”
And, that’s why every bit of War Reserve Materiel needs to look and operate like it was just purchased, like someone’s life depends on it.
“I’m in the business of saving lives,” said Senior Airman Jonathan Baker, Aerospace Ground Equipment flight journeyman. “A lot of people feel there is a greater sense in what we are doing.”
