Munitions Specialities

recruiters tell a lot of stories here's one you probably haven't heard in the 1870s the Cavalry was introducing a new weapon to their Arsenal it was called the Gatling gun and it was supposed to revolutionize the nature of warfare one General resisted the idea of the Gatling gun said he couldn't see wasting his troops time on new fangled inventions and besides he probably didn't need it anyway the general probably regretted that not long thereafter not far from here in the Black Hills at a place called Little Big Horn the general's name was George Armstrong kuster [Music] [Applause] [Music] J [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] noisy things takes a lot of teamwork to get one of those f4s off the ground in fact every time an Air Force plane takes off it's because so many people have done their job so well an important part of the team are the people working in the Munitions career field they're the ones who test the systems and maintain the weapons and load the bombs and guns onto combat aircraft and it's at their job we're going to look more closely one bomb come off at half second intervals off of each selected station go ahead okay see the difference there okay now let's go to C you me okay what's going to happen here is they going to stagger from left to right Outboards then inboards and Center Line hit your bomb button again there at half second intervals okay the bombs are coming off at 500 of a second apart hit it it's clean this is where Munitions training begins at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver Colorado the classroom training here is designed to last 13 weeks but it's self-paced and most students have been finishing in about 10 some exceptional people have finished in 3 weeks or less there's a lot to learn here from basic Electronics circuits volts watts to the sophisticated armaments on fighter aircraft here Airmen learned the machines and the procedures that they'll use when they take their place on Munitions Crews throughout the world the training situations here are intense takes high qualifications to get in and a lot of hard work to graduate Master Sergeant David Galvin tells us about the 46 career field the aircraft Armament system specialist starts out with a course that everyone is doing the same thing they're getting their basic knowledge then after this they're split up depend on what area they're going into Tactical Air Command Strategic Air Command or Aerospace Defense command and these courses vary in in length you get Electronics you get aircraft familiarization you get into the technical orders uh learning how to read electrical schematics and diagrams and working with the equipment the only thing you're allowed to do is a 462 to that unit just to take it out and put another one back in as far you cannot check out that unit itself that's has to be taken in pil and they'll do it for you in the 462 area the aircraft Armament system specialist you could find yourself on the flight line as a load team member and their duties include the pre-flight or pre-check of the aircraft the electrical system the inspection of Munitions and loading the 461 is a munition system specialist these people could be working out in the bomb storage area moving Munitions around storing them assembling them you have people working in the dispatch area they control the vehicles the maintenance the Munitions that need to be assembled we're on the far side of the flight line at low air force base of course there aren't any airplanes at Lowry anymore but at most Air Force bases the amunition storage area is in an area like this this is the other side of the 46 career field the munition storage and moving Sergeant Johnson is in charge of the training here what goes on here Sergeant Johnson well as you know in the field our job is to store and maintain Munitions items build them up and deliver them to the flight line so the 4 62s can load the money aircraft our training here is directed toward what we will be doing in the job this morning we've got a couple young air will be uh as of course requires unloading this loaded tur from a transport vehicle [Music] we are very mechanized we have a lot of equipment now that uh is powered we don't have to pick up bombs and raise them up we have equipment to do [Music] this the reason I come in the Air Force mainly was for schooling before I come in I really didn't have that good of a job and since we got married I've been I've been working swing shift and graveyard and by the last two months before we came in I got a job where I was working 8 to5 is really great but it wasn't wasn't the pay and I wasn't I wasn't learning enough and I wanted to learn something and that's why I come in the Air Force my my dad always said if you're going to go go to the Air Force oh I'm from Hamilton Indiana and um clear through high school and through college much of those years i' always thought about joining the Air Force and never gotten around to it got out of college and decided to join the Air Force seemed like a rewarding career and I've enjoyed it so far training seems pretty decent [Music] [Applause] hundreds of students go through the training block here at Lowry and it's a self-paced program so they're all working at individual Paces now for the student to keep track of where he is in the program and for the school to know where each student's supposed to be that kind of information can only be handled on a computer like our friend eigor here eigor is part of the database system that's managed by Sergeant Glatt Sergeant what does a computer system like this mean to the individual student here well what the actual uh system can do for the student is once he fills out his form that he's performed done his lesson in the class he comes out and runs it on the B terminal that you looked at earlier what I'm going to do here is I'm going to ring up a student and show you exactly what he will receive on his copy that he will get what we have is a student who is in Block five his home Carol seat is 51 which is actually a seat number where he's supposed to be sitting he finished Block 14 lesson one he's completed it it shows a time he completed it the Julian date tells him congratulations you completed this lesson now his next assignment is block zero AIS test forms so now he's going to go to this next lesson and it gives him exactly where he should be and what his test number will be and tells him can good work what are you working on Dave a Gatling gun what is this used in uh mostly fighter bomber tactical airplanes where are you in your training now are you about finished uh about 3/4 of the way through mhm and you've covered this and what other sorts of things uh basic electronics and missiles and bombs and that sort of thing about the electronics did you know about Electronics before you came in yeah quite a bit of it but it was still all helpful you know it's mostly basic stuff refresh your memories what brought you into the career field I came in the open Electronics field and this is the job they gave me and I'm really happy with the job I think it'll be an exciting career field the training received at Lowry really pays off in the field like at this Munitions maintenance shop in mcdill Air Force Base Florida this is a 20 mm Cannon the type that goes on an F4 fighter aircraft Sergeant Tony De Georgio repairs and maintains these Cannon Tony what do you think about the career field and working on this kind of machine I find the career field very interesting because I feel like I'm participating in the Air Force it's it's what the Air Force is all about and I enjoy doing the work and I enjoy seeing the end product work why don't you go with your check here yes sir the work is physical heavy especially on the bombers the equipment is very heavy and huge the works hard um it gets pretty routine it's too hot too hard a lot of heavy work there's times and commitments and missions where we we have to load it regardless of what it's doing outside I remember remember one particular cold windy night uh the wind was blowing and it was cold and uh we kept calling control and uh saying what's the what's the windshield factor and he kept saying it's 59 below sge so just hang in there and we uh we hung in there 59 below for a few hours flight lines are some of the worst places to be there's no trees there's always wind there's no shade so you're facing uh from time to time quite a bit of adversity okay this is an awm 34 tester it's used to test out uh most of the equipment here in the shop release type equipment it does tell us where the malfunction is if there is a malfunction if the systems are acting correctly if there's any fluctuation the resistance is too much too less and uh going back to the troubleshooting guide in the to we can find out what to do to eliminate the problem and if the electrical and mechanical checks functional checks are operational and then the equipment sent out to the flight line for in use myself personally I have gained a lot of electrical experience in the field what's this test here Sergeant Dixon what are you doing here there's a multiple weapon systems check out for all the stations on the aircraft all of the weapon systems being checked out now right through this machine how often do you do this thing we do it we do two of them a week and we do every aircraft on the base annually [Music] an explosive accident just doesn't happen as long as the your cffl and follow directives that have been established the job is uh completely safe n it don't bother you after a while you don't ever think of it the job is really quite a bit safer than uh driving your car or any other thing you do dayto day [Music] [Music] I would say the promotions are are better than average in the 46 the opportunity is there for a man to assume supervisory responsibilities considerably earlier than he would in the the civilian environment maybe as a buck sergeant and uh as a staff sergeant and then you go from there to being a flight line supervisor then maybe a shi supervisor up to a section supervisor as you progress up the competition that takes place annually throughout the various commands such as the giant sword for Strategic Air Command is kind of an incentive it it instills the competitive mood into the people you want to have the best load team in your command so you work hard at it and naturally people who do compete through elimination are the best that your base or your command have to offer if you enter the 46 career field and you find yourself assigned to the Strategic Air Command you may take part in a competition like the one you've been seeing here at Ellsworth Air Force Base South Dakota to compete for the title of best in sack all of the activity out on the flight line comes in to focus here in this room behind me is the situation board for giant sword and all the points are total for the various competing Crews later on this room will be filled with crew members excited anxious to find out who's going to be named best in sack these team members take their jobs and this competition very seriously [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] some of the people that you see around sporting many stripes on their arms are really fine leaders and people you're proud to say are in a field that you're in general kuster may not have thought much of the latest in armaments and Munitions but the modern Air Force does and there may be a place for you in the munition career field [Applause]