Team Dover clears the runway: Maintainers generate 22 aircraft in 36 hours Published Feb. 17, 2010 By Airman 1st Class Shen-Chia Chu 436th AW Public Affairs DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Team Dover generated and launched 22 Dover aircraft, both C-5 Galaxys and C-17 Globemaster IIIs, Feb. 4 and 5, emptying the flightline in advance of a large snow storm. The crews worked to generate and launch all of Dover's assigned aircraft that were present at Dover Air Force Base to accomplish 618th Tanker/Airlift Control Center missions and prevent the aircraft from being stuck as Dover dug out from 18 measurable inches of snow. "This is the first time Dover Air Force Base has cleared all the aircraft on the runway to take-off early for missions due to the incoming snow storm," said Joe Adams, 436th Maintenance Operations Squadron scheduler, who has worked at Dover for 20 years. "We had approximately 36 hours to do it and amazingly, we got it done." There are numerous tasks that must be accomplished before launch, as crews work to generate aircraft, said Mr. Adams. "This took a team effort as we helped to coordinate the sequencing of events to move the aircraft," he said. "Every person plays a critical position to accomplish the mission - the 436th Aerial Port Squadron to move the cargo to the plane, the pilots flying the plane and maintainers knowing which planes need repair in the short deadline." As the crews work to launch the aircraft, other maintainers work to ensure that every task was accomplished accurately and safely, while working with the aircrews to launch the jets. "We act as the liaison between operations and maintenance," said Airman 1st Class John Harris, 436th MOS maintenance management production. "We not only order parts for maintenance, replacements and inspections to ensure the safety and accuracy of the mission, we ensure documents have the seal of approval and the planes are ready to take off." Team Dover's ability to generate and launch the 22 aircraft within 36 hours is a testament to the training and dedication of the Airmen working on the flightline. "We've been prepared in our training, day in and day out, for an immediate turn over like this," said Maj. Ronald Betts, 436th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron operations officer. The maintainers worked to launch all the aircraft to ease the burden on snow removal crews, to make it easier for them as they cleared the flightline of snow to allow operations to resume at Dover AFB. "It takes about six hours to shovel snow away from the planes, but because all operational aircraft were able to leave, the 436th Civil Engineer Squadron was able to plow and clear the ramp for snow removal more efficiently from the flightline," said Major Betts. In addition to aiding snow removal crews in returning Dover to full operations as quickly as possible, launching all the aircraft allowed Dover aircrews to continue the mission of delivering necessary cargo to deployed servicemembers around the globe. "It would be a shame to have a plane stuck here because our most significant mission at Dover is to deliver cargo to the warfighters," said Mr. Adams. "We deliver to support those downrange - blankets, blood, ammo, food and water, flak vests - our warfighters really depend on us."