Aircrew Safety Equipment personnel key Team Dover

Senior Airman Elias Gallardo-Baez, 436th Operations Support Squadron aircrew flight equipment technician, inspects night vision goggles June 9, 2014, at Dover Air Force Base, Del. The goggles provide operators improved situational awareness during periods of low natural illumination by amplifying light from the moon and stars. (U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Jared Duhon)

Aircrew Flight Equipment personnel key Team Dover

Published June 10, 2014
By Senior Airman Jared Duhon
436th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. -- Aviation is inherently a very dangerous occupation, which makes proper flight safety equipment a matter of life and death.

Team Dover is home to 18 C-5M Super Galaxies and 13 C-17 Globemaster IIIs which all require safety equipment that is maintained and distributed by the 436th Operations Support Squadron's aircrew flight equipment.

Airman 1st Class Kellyn Olson, 436th OSS AFE apprentice, is one of a handful of technicians who ensure the aircrews have safety gear and training needed to safely execute their mission.

"My job is important because if there's ever an emergency on the plane, our equipment is essential to sustain life," said Olson, "We provide the aircrew with properly-fitting gear as well as the training on that gear."

The quality of equipment and training is an important part of AFE. Staff Sgt. Clayton Morris, 436th OSS AFE quality assurance inspector, ensures the equipment and training is on par and technicians get the proper updates and continuation training they need.

"Not only am I responsible for knowing all the equipment for the two aircraft here, but I also ensure all of our technicians are executing inspections and equipment maintenance appropriately," said Morris. "The technicians are charged with ensuring the equipment saves lives when all the bad stuff happens; I ensure that they are executing that appropriately."

AFE provides the aircrews with equipment ranging from night-vision goggles, oxygen masks, parachutes and life rafts to survival kits, survival vest, body armor, chem-gear and CSEL radios, said Olson.

"The Combat Survival Evader Locator radio, or CSEL, would help us locate them in the instance they go down," said Olson. "The job can get mundane at times because of the inspection cycles, but it is cool learning about all the equipment, knowing that our equipment can save people's lives."

Tech. Sgt. J.R. Moyer, 326th Airlift Wing C-17 loadmaster, spoke about AFE while picking up a helmet and night-vision googles from AFE's customer service desk.

"What they do is vital," said Moyer. "The dependable work they do allows us to have one less thing we have to worry about and concentrate on the mission. You always have problems with any job, and it is not the problems but how they handle it that matters. AFE always resolves the issue and continues to provide top notch services."