HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah – Two 388th Maintenance Group schedulers along with the Maintenance Training Section were recently recognized by Air Combat Command for their outstanding work.
The Air Combat Command Maintenance Management and Training Awards recognize the best maintainers in ACC, which is headquartered at Langley AFB, Va., and operates more than 1,000 aircraft, 35 wings, 12 bases, and 1,336 units at more than 242 operating locations worldwide with 156,739 total force military and civilian personnel.
“Our maintainers work hard, day in and day out, to provide the fifth-generation Airpower that our nation needs,” said 388th Fighter Wing Command Chief Master Sgt. Liz Cloyd. “It’s great to see that crucial mission exemplified by these ACC award winners. We’re all very proud of them.”
Tech. Sgt. Jessica Wrestler, a scheduler in the 388th Logistics Support Squadron, won in the non-commissioned officer category, while Master Sgt. David Vijil, another scheduler in the 388th LSS, won in the senior non-commissioned officer category of the 2020 Air Combat Command Maintenance Management and Training Awards.
Wrestler and Vijil work on a team that looks over the 388th Fighter Wing’s entire fleet of 78 F-35s and works with flight line maintainers to schedule aircraft and components for recurring maintenance or inspections, or even fleet-wide parts replacements that need to be properly sourced and scheduled and replaced immediately.
They’re goal is to keep as many aircraft available as possible to generate training sorties and be ready for short-notice combat taskings every day.
“While being in a job that sometimes is over-shadowed, I enjoy building the future plans that affect and determine aircraft capabilities,” said Sgt. Vijil. “It leads to a clear and direct path for both maintenance group and operations group commanders.”
The 388th Maintenance Training Section was recognized as the best maintenance training section in ACC.
The Maintenance Training Section is made up of 11 Airmen, who are the single focal-point for all training in the 388th Maintenance Group. As such, they are the lead training section for the F-35A Lightning II. They develop, review and update all F-35 specific courses for other F-35A maintenance training sections to use.
The MTS instructors provide both classroom and hands-on training on 17 different courses that are specific to the F-35.
“All of us in the section are rewarded when the Airmen we’re training become better, more proficient technicians,” said Senior Master Sgt. Crystal Standifer, superintendent of the Maintenance Training Section.