Crew Dawgs: (Combat crew chiefs on a UH-60)

A Dirty Bird / Johnnie Sprinkle Film
This is a tribute to the men and women who fly in the back of a UH-60 Blackhawk in Iraq. A salute to those who keep'em flyin'.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Army
• helicopter
• blackhawk
• chopper
• uh-60
• crew
• chief
• black
• hawk
• johnnie
• sprinkle
• 4-6
• ACS
• air
• cav
• mosul
• iraq
• OIF

[Roofwalker56]

Needing info from helicopter maintenance personnel. I’ve got a son in AIT @ Fort Eustis (15T) Listed as Army Reserve but has had some units asking him to switch to active. Wondering what a typical day/week might be like if deployed Afghanistan or Iraq.

So far he has gotten the typical BS from transfer guys– one said 15T's did nothin but sleep & goof around. Another said that they were required to do rotation going on patrol w/ the infantry kicking in doors.

Need some factual info

[mooresark]

@Roofwalker56 Depends on if he is going with a flying unit (in a flying position) or with a maintenance ground crew. Either way a 15T is very busy much of the time. Sure there is some downtime, but these helicopters have to keep flying everyday, and it's the 15T who is the workhorse of that business. I hope he is in a flying slot. You meet very few 15Ts who don't want to be a flying crewchief. Most 15Ts want to fly, but the flying companies pick on the cream of the crop for flight status.

[Roofwalker56]

@mooresark At this point he is # 1 in his class of 16 at Ft Eustis. 160th SOAR came in and has "offered" guys a slots with their outfit "active duty" if they graduated top 5% of the class. Since they are Sp. Ops. does that mean they are a "flight group" but would probably start as ground crew & work up? What are your thoughts? Also, is it good place to build a WOFT packet?

What's your take on the info he has gotten about being a 15t but being sent "on Patrol & Kicking doors," is it BS or not ?

[mooresark]

@Roofwalker56 Most likely the kicking in doors is BS -- mechanics are always needed. The 160th have flying and non-flying 15Ts it will depend on his motivation, attitude, character and work ethic as to whether or not he gets a flying slot. Also 160th can "take" any 15T. Pilots volunteer and are then selected and assessed for it, but crewchiefs can be assigned to the unit without volunteering. Any job in aviation is good for a WOFT packet. I applied for WOFT and did not have aviation background.

[uh60l]

@BuckVid No problem, I just have spent alot of my career trying to get people to perform aircraft maintenance as "by the book" as possible for safety reasons and have had very few people take it as seriously as they should. (back when I was an E-4, they'd just say "shut up and get back to work specialist" :-) ) Now on the weekend I am a QC guy, so I can make more of a difference. Some of the new guys just don't seem to care, though. I'm glad your unit has a better work ethic.

[BuckVid]

@uh60l I came off as more aggressive than I meant to, and I'm sorry for that. My feelers aren't hurt, but I am sorry that's what you've seen. Maybe I'm just in a weird company, but I'm coming up on only 4 years and we do our best to only hand off scheduled inspections above 120's. I can honestly say I've never pencil whipped an inspection, but unfortunately, I have seen it. I will admit there are times where mission dictates handing off easy stuff, but we try and do what we can.

[uh60l]

@BuckVid First, if your a CE then your on flight status, thus, a "crew chief". I'm coming up on 23 years as a Black Hawk mechanic (UH60A, UH60L and HH60M). In all that time I have only known 1 or 2 "crew chiefs" that actually did most of their own maintenance or actually did the maintenance that they were "signing off". Most of them pencil whipped the 10/14 inspections (and now the PMD).

If your feelers are hurt, go jump on your fellow "crew chiefs" for giving you bad name.

[BuckVid]

@uh60l Oh, you mean us flight-slotted CE's that still do maintenance? You mean us right? Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the hell out of the Maintenance Co. guys. But to say flying crewchiefs don't do maintenance, especially deployed, is just ignorant.

[uh60l]

"A salute to those who keep'em flyin'."

Oh, you mean the mechancis, who don't get to go flying.

Thanks.

[Tcald2212]

Currently doing DEP and will go to basic when I graduate but I put down a crew chief for a UH-60 Blackhawk, I'm pretty excited.

[adnoble]

@Roofwalker56 I am currently deployed and a 15T crew chief, we work all day and all night on several different shifts (between 8-12 hours in length). As far as the kicking in doors, that's a load of BS I would say - or at least I've never heard of it. I am also putting in a warrant officer packet for a flight slot after I return home. Your son will be fine, a 15T is one of the better jobs in the Army- I love it.

[60CrewDawg69]

@Roofwalker56 Where in the Reserve is he going? Very few places in the Army right now have the Mike Models. The unit I'm in was the first unit equipped with them. They are nice airframes. If a Reserve unit really does have some i bet they are even nicer then we can keep ours. They dont fly near as much. Our aircraft only 4 years old already pushing 2000 hrs per airframe. Well good luck to him that was me 4 yrs ago. Ive been doing it 5 yrs and i just 22.

[Roofwalker56]

@60CrewDawg69 Thanks for the info. He ended AIT 2-months ago but was held over and take the newer UHM model training since he graduated #1 in his class. That was great for him. His class was all crew chiefs & AIT instructors so he learned as much from them as he did in the class. He ended up tied for top honors with one of his previous instructors (not too bad for an 18-year old kid) Ends up that 160 SOAR couldn't offer him the slot since he wasn't active duty. He was pissed.to say the least.

[60CrewDawg69]

@Roofwalker56 I have been a Crewchief 5 years. Deployed twice. As a matter of fact my unit replaced the guys who made this video on 2008 Talafar, Iraq. Now i'm in Afghanistan, and just wanted to say I have never seen a 15T paired with infantry guys. As mooresark said this helicopters break more then they fly. Be a great mechanic spending 12 hrs a day fixing aircraft and a flight company will take notice. Then you can go out fly 8 hrs mission and still spend 12 hrs fixing it afterwards