Munitions impact the mission

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Jeff Walston
  • 307th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
Barksdale AFB, La. --  Before an aircrew has the opportunity to drop a bomb on target, the impact that bomb will have on the mission passes through a myriad of preparation phases. From outside the fence looking in, it may be difficult to understand the complexity of the munitions logistics procurement process and what it takes to accomplish it successfully.

The 307th Munitions Flight, which is part of the 307th Maintenance Squadron, at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, is the largest maintenance unit in the 307th Bomb Wing, consisting of three sections (Materiel, Systems and Production), 10 work centers and more than 92 Airmen are assigned to the flight. Totally integrated, the flight consists of more than 59 traditional reservists, 19 Air Reserve Technicians and 14 active-duty Airmen working side-by-side to complete the mission. The flight supports three squadrons at Barksdale AFB: the 93rd Bomb Squadron, 340th Weapons Squadron and the 49th Test Squadron.

"On a weekly basis, bomb squadron schedulers relay the training requirements to Munitions Plans and Scheduling, and they tell the munitions storage shop what build requirements are to be pulled from the storage facilities and delivered to maintenance facility so the components can be inspected and built up. Then, the assembled bombs and left over components are returned to the storage area until needed. It's a big process," said Tech. Sgt. John Carter, the munitions storage shop chief for the 307th MXS.

Carter believes the 21 Airmen he supervises are an indispensable part of that procurement process.

"When it comes to making sure all the other munitions shops (Maintenance, Inspection, Precision Guided Munitions and Line Delivery) have what they need to accomplish their daily work load, we get them what they need to put a bomb in the bay. It could be anything from rolling bombs, all the way down to delivering 9 mm ammunition. You never know," said Carter.

Having been in the munitions career field, commonly referred to as AMMO, since 1979, Carter has seen his career field change many times over the years.

"Every day is a challenge in AMMO. Things change right and left, and you've got to be fluid and go with the flow," Carter said.

Some bombs in the Barksdale inventory are older than the Airmen handling them, and procedures for the job have evolved over the years in keeping with new technologies. Airmen are now responsible for maintaining an electronic paper trail of all transfers and inventories with the Combat Ammunition System (CAS).

The hardest part of the daily operations is real time tracking of inventory as it is moved. It can be messed up easily and no one would ever know it. So, component movements are tracked on paper as they happen and transferred to CAS afterwards, said Senior Airman William Roberts, who is a storage crew member, with the 307th MXS.

According to Senior Master Sgt. Kyle White, a 307th MXS munitions accountability systems officer, the Airmen of the munitions storage shop control more than $11 million worth of inventory at any given time, consisting of 260 or more different line items needed for the mission.

For the young storage crew members, as well the "AMMO Fossil," as Carter is affectionately referred to, real time accountability of that size of an inventory remains the number one challenge. "Explosives are tracked from 'cradle to grave,' in CAS, and there must be 100 percent accountability," Carter said.

Carter said his goal has always been to ensure his Airmen are trained and ready to take over in his absence. One way he has accomplished that is by instilling a sense of old school AMMO camaraderie in his team. He insists that if the change is not seamless, the pilots don't get what they need for training and to complete their combat mission.