News>18th CMS Egress Airmen have 'thrust you can trust'
Photos
U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Zachary McAllister, 18th Component Maintenance Squadron Egress Systems apprentice, retraces precise outlines to show exactly where each tool used by Egress Airmen go Sept. 20 at Kadena Air Base, Japan. Airmen working with Egress Systems provide first rate aircrew escape system maintenance for 54 assigned F-15C and D model aircraft at Kadena. This includes arming, de-arming, removing, inspecting and installing Advanced Concept Ejection Seats (ACES II), parachutes, survival kits, and 3600 explosive batteries, initiators, detonating cords, and rockets involved in the swift and safe ejection of fighter aircrew here at Kadena. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sara Csurilla)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Paul Denardo, removes a seat cover from an F-15C Eagle ejection seat while Airman 1st Class Mark Lane and Tech. Sgt. Thomas Hakala prepare to help remove a parachute from the seat of the escape system Sept. 21 at Kadena Air Base, Japan. All three Airmen are from the18th Component Maintenance Squadron Egress Systems section. Egress Airmen perform routine inspections and time changes with the ejection seats, aircraft canopies and all the working parts of the aircrew escape system in order to keep the pilot alive in case they have to eject. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sara Csurilla)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Paul Denardo, 18th Component Maintenance Squadron Egress Systems journeyman, unscrews parts from an F-15C Eagle canopy in order to remove the canopy and replace the ejection seat Sept. 21 at Kadena Air Base, Japan. Airmen working with Egress Systems provide first rate aircrew escape system maintenance for 54 assigned F-15C and D model aircraft at Kadena. This includes arming, de-arming, removing, inspecting and installing Advanced Concept Ejection Seats (ACES II), parachutes, survival kits, and 3600 explosive batteries, initiators, detonating cords, and rockets involved in the swift and safe ejection of fighter aircrew here at Kadena. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sara Csurilla)
U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Paul Denardo, 18th Component Maintenance Squadron Egress Systems journeyman, unscrews parts from an F-15C Eagle canopy in order to remove the canopy and replace the ejection seat Sept. 21 at Kadena Air Base, Japan. Airmen working with Egress Systems provide first rate aircrew escape system maintenance for 54 assigned F-15C and D model aircraft at Kadena. This includes arming, de-arming, removing, inspecting and installing Advanced Concept Ejection Seats (ACES II), parachutes, survival kits, and 3600 explosive batteries, initiators, detonating cords, and rockets involved in the swift and safe ejection of fighter aircrew here at Kadena. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sara Csurilla)
An F-15C ejection seat sits in the 18th Component Maintenance Squadron Egress Systems Section after being pulled from the aircraft for routine maintenance Sept. 21 at Kadena Air Base, Japan. This ejection seat is usually the last chance at a pilot's survival if something goes wrong during a flight. Once the ejection handle is pulled, the aircraft canopy comes off, and explosives shoot the seat along with the pilot out and away from the aircraft. It is an approximately seven second process and the initial acceleration will cause 12 to 14 G?s. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sara Csurilla)
by Senior Airman Sara Csurilla
18th Wing Public Affairs
9/22/2011 - KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- When a pilot jumps in the cockpit ready to fly, the last thing going through his or her mind is ejecting.
That's okay though, because Airmen of the 18th Component Maintenance Squadron are here to do that thinking for them.
The 18th CMS's mission is to produce safe, reliable and effective component maintenance using premier technical expertise.
More specifically, there's the Egress section of the 18th CMS. Their job is to make sure a pilot can safely eject from an aircraft, enabling Kadena's F-15 pilots to fly, fight and win with confidence that their escape system will work 100 percent of the time.
"The Egress section provides first rate aircrew escape system maintenance for 54 assigned F-15C and D model aircraft at Kadena," said Tech. Sgt. Thomas Hakala, 18th CMS aircrew egress element chief. "This includes arming, de-arming, removing, inspecting and installing advanced concept ejection seats, parachutes, survival kits, and 3,600 explosive batteries, initiators, detonating cords, and rockets involved in the swift and safe ejection of fighter aircrew here at Kadena."
"We are the prime reason why our pilots are able to escape from a disabled aircraft and return to the fight, and to their families," Hakala continued. "If the Egress section did not exist, there would be no integrity to the F-15C/D escape systems. Also, aircrew would lose confidence in their capacity to successfully eject in the event of an emergency, which would hinder their ability to effectively operate their aircraft."
Every individual fighter aircraft has an ejection seat with many working parts in it, every working part has an expiration date, and every expiration date is paid very close attention to by the Airmen of the 18th CMS.
"If we don't keep everything up-to-date with current inspections, we are putting pilots and everyone working around the jets at risk," said Senior Airman Paul Denardo, 18th CMS Egress maintenance journeyman. "It's not like we can test egress. When we do our job, we need to do it correctly the first time, or a pilot could die."
Duties of an Airman working in the Egress section tend to stay consistent overall, but individual duties can vary from day to day.
"The daily duties of Egress Airmen include coordinating with [18th CMS] Plans and Scheduling and the 18th Munitions Squadron for timely acquisition and replacement of explosive time change items located on the ejection seats; and using and maintaining composite tool kits, technical orders, pneumatic and electrical principles and explosives safety to accomplish the mission," said Hakala.
This year alone, the Egress section has removed 58 ejection seats, completed more than 300 explosive time changes and more than 450 Egress system inspections.
"Recently, the Egress section discovered a severe corrosion problem on the F-15 C/D ACES II seats, which resulted in a total of six seats being condemned," Hakala explained. "One of the replacement ejection seats we received came from an 15E Strike Eagle aircraft. We became the first Egress section in the Air Force to ever re-configure the F-15E seat structure to F-15C/D specifications. We did this in four days, a task that was originally estimated to take 10 days to complete. This is why our section has a tight-knit group of proud Airmen who carry the motto 'Thrust You Can Trust!'"
