MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Airmen assigned to the 23d Wing and 4th Fighter Wing, Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina, participated in a Multi-Capable Airmen course Sept. 14-15, here.
Pilots and maintainers assigned to the 4th FW traveled to Moody to train 23d WG Airmen to perform hot-pit refueling on an F-15E Strike Eagle.
“Everywhere you go, you're going to see differences, you're going to see change, you're going to see people work differently,” said Master Sgt. Christopher West, 23d Wing MCA program manager. “Having that opportunity to work with their peers in the same career field, but on a different aircraft, gives them that ability to work hand-in-hand with them. It also gives them that ability to do the job necessary to get our aircraft back in the fight a lot faster."
Team Moody has conducted several Multi-Capable Airmen courses over the past year, but this one gave the Airmen involved a unique experience.
“This is the first time multi-capable Airmen have had this opportunity to train on a different aircraft,” West said. “Seymour brought down their specialists in regards to hot pit certifications, their crew chiefs and their quality assurance members to watch over and train.”
The first day of the two-day training consisted of learning the aircraft and the differences between the F-15E and the A-10C Thunderbolt II, which they are accustomed to working on.
“They did some cold training, [which involved] aircraft familiarization going over the safety-zone areas, so our [Airmen] are familiar with the F-15E,” West said. “There's different positions they have to understand to fuel [the aircraft]. You have to remember to talk to the pilot, make sure that everything is shut down properly to safely provide fuel to the aircraft. Then you have a member hooking up the fuel hose and a member running the fuel truck.”
The following day consisted of 23d Wing members demonstrating what they learned to receive qualification and certifications on refueling the F-15E.
“Most of our members have been doing hot-pits on the A-10s for three or more years, so it just provided them an opportunity to get the hot-pit training on the F-15,” West said. “It didn't take a lot to get these guys trained. We were worried that it was going to be a little bit more, but because they're so familiar with being around aircraft, once they learned the differences they hit the ground running.”
While the training focused on refueling F-15Es, it also brought a new perspective to the Airmen.
“This training and hot-pit certification is really important for the Moody MCA teams,” said Capt. Justin Pilant, 4th Fighter Wing MCA training lead. “I think these Airmen are seeing that there's a bigger picture. MCA [training] is not just something that we're doing here at Moody. We're doing it at Seymour Johnson as well and across ACC and the Air Force. But guess what? There's going to be other aircraft in the air as well. And, we need to be able to hook those guys up with some fuel as well.”
Developing these Multi-Capable Airmen courses is part of a strategic plan to develop the Air Force for the future.
“Agile combat employment requires multiple-capable Airmen learning to fight differently,” Pilant said. “Learning to train and preparing ourselves for any fight is what we have to do so that we can win our nation's wars.”