Feature - 379th Air Expeditionary Wing

Desert Eagle
Feature
From the shadows: PMEL
Airmen deliver precision to AOR
Story by Senior Airman Clinton Atkins
Photos by Staff Sgt. Darnell T. Cannady
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
The door opens into a dimly-lit labyrinth of technology. The
bright light from outside sears through revealing the truth behind
the Air Force’s precision of wartime capabilities.
Though they work from the shadows of the 379th Air Expeditionary
Wing mission, the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance
Squadron Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory here
tinker away relentlessly – glory is not a priority.
The shop’s mission is to calibrate and repair test measurement
and diagnostic equipment ultimately resulting in bombs
dropped accurately on target. Equipment such as spectrum analyzers,
torque wrenches, pressure gauges and missile guided test
sets are meticulously fi ne-tuned to meet PMEL’s four criteria of
accuracy, reliability, traceability and safety.
“Most of the time people don’t know PMEL exists until
something needs to be fi xed,” said Tech. Sgt. Kevin Clyde, 379
EMXS test measurement diagnostic equipment quality assurance
noncommissioned offi cer in charge.
“Our job is important because everything we calibrate gets
traced back to the National Institute of Standards and Technology
standards so we know the item is accurate,” said Master Sgt.
Joseph Farmer, 379 EMXS PMEL fl ight chief. “If it’s traceable
and has to have an accurate measurement done to it we’re the
ones who perform it.”
Armed to the teeth with tools and gadgets, the 17-man PMEL
fl ight is the sole calibration provider in the area of responsibility.
“It’s kind of unique considering we support over 14,000
items,” said Sergeant Farmer, deployed from Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base, Ariz. “A normal PMEL would have about 35
personnel for that amount of inventory. We’re able to keep it
down to 17 because we are a 24-hour operation here.”
Each piece of equipment has an average inspection interval of
three to six months, which can sometimes be overwhelming.
“We are way under-sized with one of the largest inventories
in the Air Force,” said Sergeant Clyde, a Yreka, Calif., native
deployed from Travis AFB, Calif.
The PMEL provides calibration and support for 10 countries and
more than 30 installations throughout the AOR. They also provide
customer service to more than 268 customers. In the past three months,
the crew has calibrated more than 3,450 pieces of equipment.
“Probably the heaviest workload here is torque wrenches and
pressure gauges, which cover about 35 percent of the total items
we see,” Sergeant Farmer said.
PMEL is currently running at 80 percent capacity and divided
into three locations due to limited space. A $750,000 facility
currently under construction will solve the spacing issue and
boost capacity to 90 percent with an increase in manning to 20
personnel, Sergeant Farmer said. Construction is expected to be
completed in September.
“The stuff we don’t have the equipment for we’re able to do
lateral support to other bases in the region,” said the Kansas City,
Mo., native. “The new building will eliminate half the amount of
items we need to send out for lateral support.”
The new facility will include a clean room, which will address one
of the PMEL shop’s greatest challenges – combating the climate.
“The climate here affects the temperature and humidity requirements
for the laboratory,” he said. “We have a bunch of
dehumidifi ers throughout the lab – they are constantly on to
combat the humidity.
According to Sergeant Farmer, the humidity can have adverse
effects on the shop’s instrumentation and tools.
“Humidity is very bad for a lot of things we do,” he said. “We
have to keep the level of humidity high enough to prevent static
electricity discharge and low enough to prevent corrosion.”
Even though the humidity can hamper the way they do business,
Airmen at the PMEL shop take pride in what Sergeant
Farmer considers to be the most important aspect of their job
– putting bombs on target accurately.
“When the [U.S. troops] were overrun in Afghanistan
8 Aug. 10, 2008