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Repair technicians 'make every dollar count'

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Krystal M. Garrett
  • 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
Four NCOs from different aircraft maintenance career fields band together to repair items deemed unfixable by others and protect Air Force resources.

So far, in fiscal year 2016, these Air Force Repair Enhancement Program technicians assigned to the 1st Special Operations Maintenance Squadron saved Hurlburt Field approximately $1.2 million by repairing parts and returning them back to the squadrons.

“Our goal is to make every dollar count,” said Tech. Sgt. Justin Flinner, an AFREP technician.

Each Airman in AFREP completed a seven-week special certification course at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, where they qualified in micro and miniature-micro soldering repair. They are also trained to troubleshoot circuit cards.

The NCOs’ focus during this three-year assignment is improving the repair process and acting as the base equipment repair specialist.

Those selected for the shop have the ability to make an impact right away, as they put equipment back in the fight.

Although aircraft maintenance units are the primary AFREP customers, other shops benefit from this money-saving program.

Recently, the Hurlburt Field Range Support Flight used AFREP to fix threat emitters.

“We called them and explained what we needed fixed,” said Jeffrey Morrision, opposing forces supervisor with the 1st Special Operations Support Squadron. “Otherwise, we would have had to find a company qualified to repair them, get a quote, and then, hopefully, acquire the funds needed for the repair.”

Staff Sgt. Kyle Eilefson, an AFREP technician, said repairing three out of four threat emitters used for opposing forces training was one of their more challenging projects.

“All three of the emitters had a different problem,” Eilefson said. “Brand new threat emitters would have cost $5 million if we weren’t able to repair them.”

AFREP saved the range support flight several months of waiting for the emitters and man hours in researching the costs of new emitters and what it would take to fund them.

“We are here to improve the repair process while saving the Air Force money,” said Flinner. “We enjoy helping our fellow Air Commandos as we all continue to manage our resources the best we can to sustain our combat-ready forces.”