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Show 12 H,i:tcp Times QUALITY. Oct. 16, 1991 EiSEHfce by TSgt. George A. Bedsaul 36th Fighter Wing Public Affairs demands the control tower nearest their scheduled arrival time is declared the winner of the arrival. This year the top five teams were less than a half second from the exact scheduled time. Gunsmoke events are scheduled for the pilots to fly one mission a day. However, the maintenance crews are continuously inspected throughout Gunsmoke on their techniques and procedures while working on the aircraft. There are also maintenance crew competitions scheduled to be done on team aircraft immediately after the aircraft returns from a mission. The maintenance crews compete in two timed events: a static load of munitions and an integrated combat turn. Some people may think of shooting it out in the street. Others may think of Marshal! Dillon and Miss Kitty and days in the old west. Hut today, for members of the Air Force, (iunsmoke means pilots and aircraft maintenance crews competing against each other head to head as the best of the best meet at N'ellis AFB, New. for the Air Force Worldwide Fighter Gunnery Meet. The event actually began months ago as each of the numbered air forces, the Air Force Reserve, the Air National Guard, and the overseas commands in Europe and the Pacific selected their best fighter wings to compete in Pilots fly bombing, strafing, navigation and The pilots must fly specified flight maintenance competition events. patterns and accurately bomb a tarAll the events selected for the get. This year there were three basic competition are based on actu- patterns, each flown twice, once to the al combat requirements. left and once to the right, with an terIraqi-helmissions over During Army tank as the bombing target and ritory, air crews from the 388th flew a cloth for strafing on 2,475 combat missions for 9,177 flying the first two patterns. Each approach hours. These missions included bomb- must be flown within altitude and air ing targets with more than eight mil- speed limits as set for each event by lion tons of munitions delivered by the the rules. The third pattern is a navi388th. Unlike the Gunsmoke competia to target, "enemy" airgation course tion, pilots on these combat missions craft near a simulated airfield with missiles and surface-to-ai- r faced live surface-to-ai- r missiles for defense. artillery. In the first two patterns, each bomb In one instance during Desert must hit the tank to be a bulls-eye- , or Storm, in one hour and 20 minutes, "shack," as the pilots call a direct hit. seven load crews loaded 24 aircraft Each meter away from the tank is lost with two each 2,000 pound bombs and points. This year the team leader, Lt. two AIM-missiles, along with Col. James Corrigan, delivered a bomb chaffflare modules. that went in the end of the gun barrel on the tank and bent it, nearly knockiin-slinge- rs three patterns Gun-smok- e d anti-aircra- ft 9 You don't win, you lose it ing the turret off. Almost everyone says that you The strafe targets are approached don't win Gunsmoke, you lose it. after the bombing. The goal of each piThis statement makes more sense lot is to hit the target with 100 rounds when it's learned that everyone starts of ammunition, no more or less. The with the maximum points available. judges count the shells as they are reEach violation of the competition rules moved from the aircraft after it or Air Force regulations, each bomb returns and compares this to the count off target, each aircraft systems of hits in the target. If there are too failure causes the team to lose points. many shells, the extras are taken away The most visible members of the from the count for the hits. No team member is exempt in this competition are the aircraft and pilots. arTheir judging begins with their competition. The support person back in the shop For timed of events. the the first rival, this, the team which crosses a line at who hands out tools and technical ord- - " it j 1 U S. Ait Fence Pilot pitches in Capt. Stan Colgate pushes a munitions trailer under the wing of his ers is as important to the judges as the person turning the wrench on the aircraft. The competition judges may enter the shop area unannounced, request a toolbox, and proceed to examine it tool by tool. Tools, technical orders Before the maintenance timed events, tool boxes are examined meticulously by the judges. "The shop support guy is in here making sure that tools aren't missing from the boxes or unserviceable," said Sgt. Steve Brewer, assistant dedicated crew chief. "He also has to make sure all of the pages are in each technical order so that when we go out to perform a procedure on the aircraft, we won't get in the middle of the job and find ourselves without guidance on what is re- Any time an aircraft is worked on, a detailed list of steps and procedures, the technical order, is required to be open for the worker to follow. The timed static load event for maintenance involves a three-persocrew. The crew must function check the ejector rack and assemble the inert bombs, placing a specified fuse onto each bomb. These are safety-wireand loaded onto the aircraft safely and correctly. The bombs must be secured and sway prevention devices tightened. The integrated combat turn simulates recovering an aircraft after its combat mission. It must be quickly refueled and reloaded with the reF-1- 6 n d quired munitions and returned to combat. 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