The White Falcon - 19.02.1965, Blaðsíða 4

4
WHITE FALCON
Friday, February 19, 1965

MAINTENANCE SUPPORT—division, headed by TSgt. Thomas Jackson
and A1C James Dunaway, make sure the F-102 Delta Daggers here
are equipped with all the parts maintenance men need to keep them
flying.
BRIEFING UNDERWAY—Capt. J;
(seated) gets a man-power briefing
gament and procedures officer, an
commissioned officer in charge o
PRIORITY ITEMS—when needed somewhere on base, these men in
the priority section can take the call, research the item, pull it from
stock, have it documented and inventoried, and dispatched to the re-
questor in about 27 minutes. A1C James F. Crane (standing) and
A2C Edward L. Whipp work on such an item now.
Air Force Bose Suppl
KNOWING WHERE—a part can be found and how to obtain it as
quickly as possible requires an effective research department. Two
of the airmen who fill the bill for AF supply here are SSgt. Charles
Pollard (seated), and A1C Donald Gilmer.

CHIEF OPERATOR—A1C Jay Kearnes, of the key punch machine
at supply that permits automation to take much of the work out of
maintaining control and levels of the 17,000 different items processed
in supply.
Story and photos l
Out on a remote plot of ground on base, traveled on
mainly by those who work there, sits a rather large building
which houses about 50 men and a maze of bins within a
warehouse.
The building is the supply office and a store room for
Air Forces Iceland components and, without question, con-
tains a function that is absolutely essential to the effective
operation of the Air Force on the island.
Although the AFI supply here is comparatively small
in number of items to its counterparts in the states, it still
has a king-size job and requires determination and skillful
performance of duty from its assigned personnel.
Capt. James T. Conley, who is the base supply officer
for AFI, says his unit has approximately 17,000 item supply
function, which is considerably smaller than most units
back home. But this doesn’t mean that a supply officer or
airman assigned here has a vacation instead of a job.
It is the task of AFI supply to support the 57th Fighter
Interceptor Sqd., the 667th and 932d AC & W Sqds., a de-
tachment known as Dye 5, and the Precision Measurement
Equipment Laboratory. By support, it is meant that all
“hardware” materials vital to the operation of the unit be
readily available through AFI supply. Only the expendable
items such as paper, pencils, carbon sets, and the like are
taken care of by the host supply unit of the Navy.
The AFI supply unit is broken down into four sections—
management and procedures division, property accounting,
maintenance support, and material facilities. Each of the
sections has an experienced noncommissioned officer in
charge, and often with a little juggling, enough airmen to
carry out the function effectively and easily.
The M&P and property accounting branches are con-
sidered the “paperwork” sections, although the former
probably does a little more shuffling of the pages. Within
M&P fall the administration, procedures, inventory control,
and document control of supply. The PA section punches
IBM cards for automated control of inventory, handles
“call-in priorities,” researches files for the whereabouts
and availability of parts, and maintains stock levels of the
various items.
Both of the remaining branches are primarily the physical
handling sections of supply, with the maintenance support
division controlling bench stocks (nuts and bolts, etc.) and
watching the repair cycle to see that serviceable items
which can be repaired either locally or back in the states
are taken care of. Finally, the material facilities branch,
which can really be called the warehousing section, re-
ceives all inbound items, maintains storage bins and issues
items, makes certain deliveries, and inspects various equip-
ment for replacement or return for servicing.
No one branch or section is considered the most im-
portant to the function, says SMSgt. Arthur Atkinson, who