Tyndall AFB, FL

Discussion in 'Warfare / Military' started by Kevo3, Oct 12, 2018.

  1. Tim15856

    Tim15856 Well-Known Member

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    They are now.
     
  2. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    And this is so very-very true.

    From 1988-1990, I was the Battalion Maintenance Chief for my Infantry Battalion. And as such, I was the #1 enlisted man in my entire Battalion in charge of all levels of maintenance, planned and unplanned. If the hand grip for an M-16 broke or a HMMWV needed an oil change, I knew about it and was involved in getting it done.

    There are in short 3 levels of maintenance categories, critical, urgent, or routine. And among these there are 3 more levels, each depending upon the readiness requirements of the unit.

    These are based on numbers, from 1 through 9. 1 being the highest, 9 the lowest.

    Most units in the US are at the second level of readiness, so their repair assignment is either a 2 (critical), 5 (urgent), or 8 (routine). A unit that had just returned from a deployment, a unit preparing to be disbanded, and many reserve units are at a repair priority of 3, 6, and 9. Units that are deployed or about to be deployed are at a priority of 1, 4, and 7.

    And in my 2+ years of being Battalion Maintenance Chief, I went through all 3 cycles. Bot in prep for deployment as we rushed to get all of our equipment fixed and working properly (which includes such things as calibrations and advanced maintenance we could not perform at our level), we were submitting everything at a 1 or 4. Nothing then was "routine", not even a broken hand grip.

    And on deployment, it was the same. Repair parts that would take us 3 weeks to get back in North Carolina were now flown to us within 4 days.

    But sometimes, the parts are simply not available. About 10 years ago one of our PATRIOT batteries was down for over a month because a critical piece for the RADAR had broken. And there was none available, they had to contract a company to fabricate a new one. And right before the Gulf War, every M2 .50 machine gun was "deadlined" because of failed bolts (this was an administrative deadline, which was revoked when the Gulf War started).

    That last one was fun. I saw my Weekly Battalion Readiness Report go instantly from reporting 36 broken M2 machine guns to having 0 broken machine guns overnight.

    Most people simply have no idea how maintenance works in the military. If an aircraft is deadlined for say it's radio not working properly, it would be sitting there on the ground when the hurricane hit. Because absolutely no commander is going to authorize a pilot to take off without a radio.

    And build hangars for a Cat 5 hurricane? Who are people trying to kid? We are lucky that many bases even have hangars that can survive a 60 mph wind. Who is going to pay for that? Because that is a huge expense, when we have soldiers living in essentially condemned buildings they think the military has enough money to build shelters like that at every at-risk base in the country?

    I honestly think far to many people have their heads shoved up their anus, and still look at the world through rose colored glasses.
     
  3. ArmySoldier

    ArmySoldier Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes times a million
     
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  4. Mushroom

    Mushroom Well-Known Member

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    Most people have absolutely no idea how powerful a hurricane is.

    I was living in Alabama in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan struck. I was only 60 miles due north when it made landfall, and the damage was considerable.

    It was only a Cat 3 storm when it made landfall, yet it badly damaged a Federal Prison 40 miles north of the coast. Just think about that, just a Cat 3 hurricane did extensive damage to a prison. Inmates had to be evacuated while the storm was still raging, because it was not safe to have them remain there.

    And people think we can build large hangars to survive a Cat 5?

    The closest I could think of we could do would be to build large underground bunkers, like we do in war zones. And that would be absolutely worthless, as the flooding would likely destroy the aircraft instead of the winds.

    I suppose they next want a magical way to be found to solve the problem of eliminating the 13-24" of rainfall as well.
     
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  5. Kevo3

    Kevo3 Member

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