(upbeat music) - Hey, everybody and welcome to Behind the Wing, the Air Force Reserve's newest podcast, the official podcast of the 315th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Charleston and I'm your host, Major Wayne Capps along with my cohost, Technical Sergeant Bobby Pilch. What's going on? - Major Capps, going good, sir. I'm glad to be here with you hosting this show and getting to talk about some of our most amazing people that serve globally and live locally right here at Joint Base Charleston. - And we call it Behind the Wing because? - 'Cause we're not the wind beneath your wing. (rimshot) (laughter) - That's right, absolutely. Behind the Wing, we're excited about the podcast. We're gonna have a good time. We're gonna talk about actually what's going on behind our airlift wing here and our goal for doing this podcast is to talk about what's going on in the background. I wanna talk to the everyday airmen who's out there busting their hump, doing what they do to serve this nation, and sometimes you don't see that. - Exactly, we want this to be just a very casual, upfront, honest look at our airmen from across the wing, hearing their stories, what they do, why they do what they do, and their passion to serve here in Joint Base Charleston. - And we have in the 315th airlift wing, we have upwards of 2500 men and women serving in uniform, so this is a good way for us to reach out and let them tell their story, not only to their wing members, but to people outside of the Air Force, and that's why we wanted to do a podcast. - Exactly, the local community likes to hear what we do here and this is, I think, a great opportunity to get a peak behind the curtain with airmen from across the wing from all different squadrons and groups so they can tell their story. - So, our first episode, this is our very first episode. It's something we've wanted to do for awhile. We used to do a television show called Troop Talk, but that became such a beast to manage, but we liked the format, so what we decided to do is take that same kind of a format and move it to a podcast, so that we can actually get our word out and let everybody understand what's going on, but maybe in a smaller type format. - Exactly, exactly. This is kind of a short and sweet, roughly 30 minute show that encompasses a lot of information and we're gonna hear everything from news ... - Yes. - Current news and I think we're gonna hear from one of our recruiters. - Yes, we've got a recruiter in here whose gonna be coming in for our news talk segment, and when I was talking to our recruiter I said, "Hey, no sales pitch." He kinda laughed. He's like, "No, no, that's not what I'm here for." But I'm fascinated about what it takes to come off the street and join the Air Force Reserve, because it's different from active duty, and we probably get several emails a week from people who are afraid to call a recruiter, because that signifies that next step for them, but they can send an email asking for information, but they're scared to follow that next step, so I just wanna talk to a recruiter and find out some ends and outs of being what we call a Citizen Airman. - Right, exactly, yeah. And I think it'd be a great opportunity to kind of de-mystify what goes into the recruiting process and also what the qualifications are for folks that are coming in off the street that would like to serve, serve locally, that like to live locally as well. - Absolutely and our main story, we're gonna be talking to aircraft maintainers, and I had such a good time talking to those folks. We sat and talked for awhile and just shot the breeze and talked about what they do and it's a fascinating insight into something that you don't normally get to find out about. - Right, exactly, a lot of folks don't understand what goes on to get those big planea up in the air. - Yeah, exactly. - Ya know, we see them everyday in the Charleston sky and they mesmerize the general public and we're all fascinated by the jets, but there's a lot of hard work and dedication on the ground that goes into getting those jets up in the air and mission ready. - Yeah, and we had Hurricane Irma came in, freaked us all out, the whole city basically evacuated, and we were really worried about what we were gonna do, and a big portion of that was getting 27 C17's up off the ground, into the air to a safe location, because when you're talking a C17, that's 202 million dollars a piece, not counting the mission that still has to go forward. - Yes sir, yes sir, exactly. To get that many jets up in the air at once is a feat in itself, and the maintainers were a critical part of that. - So, we've got our maintenance story. We're gonna do a little news, what's going on in the wing right now. Michael is gonna come into the studio here in just a minute and we'll talk about that. We're also gonna talk to an operator. We're gonna talk to somebody about all the missions that's been going on the last six months or so. What have we been doing from a flight perspective? - Yeah and I'm so excited to interview this individual, because our jets do fly across the globe, hence the name Globe Master. Whether it's something down in Central South America or over in Europe, or in the Middle East, so hopefully we're gonna hear some great stories from that operator when they get in the studio later on. - Yeah, it should be a good time. I'm excited to get this podcast kicked off. I think it's gonna be a good thing for our wing. It's gonna be a good thing for the public. - Yes sir. I'm really excited to be here doing this and I can't wait to kick this off for our first episode. - So, without further ado, let's take a listen to some aircraft maintainers and let's see what they have to say about our C17 Globe Master III. (upbeat music) Hey guys, I'm here in the studio with Chief Master Sergeant John Cornuda and Staff Sergeant Jordan Mitchell. Guys, welcome to the studio, welcome to the show. - Thank you very much, Major, it's great to be here. - Thanks, Major, how you doing today? - Not too bad. I'm excited that this is our first story on Behind the Wing, our new podcast, so wanna get right into it, you guys are aircraft maintainers, so tell me, what does that mean? What does that mean to the general populace? Just give me the nutshell. - Being a maintainer is really about safe maintenance. It's really about getting the aircraft ready to fly, do mission, and it's about being able to make sure that you're paying attention to details, so it's a lot of moving parts, and you have a team that's with you to really make sure that jet is ready and prepared to do missions that it needs to do. - So, we have how many C17's, Chief, on the base? - We have 48. - 48 right here. - Yes, sir. - 48 actual C17's, I think, on base. We, at one time, we had 54. - 54 of them, yes sir. - 54 C17's here on the base, so 48 now, you guys actually have to maintain and keep in the air. - That is correct, yes. So, and to piggyback on to what Sergeant Mitchel had said, in supervision, our job is to make sure these guys have everything they need to accomplish their mission and get that aircraft flight worthy. You know, our job is to make sure their training is up tight, fitness, physicals, that sort of thing. - So, what kind of undertaking is that, to get those aircraft in the air? If I'm talking about somebody on the outside who thinks of a mechanic, you think of somebody maintaining your car, you know, and you only fix it when something's wrong. - Absolutely, so what I've noticed coming on the Air Force is whenever it comes down to maintenance, it's not something that you wanna fix when it's just broken, it's something that you do constant inspections. You wanna look at certain key points on the jet to make sure that it's ready, it's serviceable, it's ready to fly, and you also wanna just makes sure that it's up to date, it's a well oiled machine. - Yeah, if you think about a C17, in geneal, C17 Globe Master III, 200 million dollar aircraft, and how old are you, Jordan? - I'm 24 years old. - So, 24 years old, out there maintaining a 200 million dollar aircraft, and I think that's really cool, don't you think? - Yes, sir. - Absolutely, yeah. - And Jordan here's one of our finest, don't a Cracker Jack job out there. - And new Staff Sergeant, right? - Yes, sir. - Fairly new. - Fairly new. - Well, congratulations. - Congratulations, but and 24 years old, that's ... Not only the aircraft, it's the lives that are on board. I've seen 200 plus people fit on a C17 during a hurricane evacuation. That's a big responsibility. What do you think, Chief? - Well, our corp is getting younger and younger, and it's people like Jordan here who take the reigns and do a great job and eventually become future leaders training the new airmen behind them. - You know, and you say that, they're getting younger and younger, I think it might be we're getting older and older. (laughter) - I don't wanna admit to that, but I think it's true. - So, we recently went through a big hurricane. Hit the East Coast, devastated part of the Caribbean, hit Florida pretty hard, but what a lot of people outside of maybe the Southeast don't realize is, it hit South Carolina pretty hard, too. We had 27 aircraft on the field, on the ramp during that time. We had to get them all off base, because that's a lot of money and it's a lot of responsibility. We have to keep our mission going and so, talk about that process and how that happened, Chief. Can you give me a little insight of what happened? What went on? - You've been here a while, Major, you know when we get the order to evacuate, it's our jobs to take every aircraft we can generate and get them off of the ground, into safe haven, as we like to call it. It's difficult enough, just making that many aircraft fly when their flight fully mission capable, then you have a lot of aircraft that may be in the home station check hangar, where they're getting inspections and torn apart and they have to be pieced back together, very quickly, but very safely, and getting that aircraft out of here as well, and I am proud to say, like you said, 27 aircraft all departed. Not a single one was left here on sight. - And that doesn't happen a lot. To see this aircraft, I think we took a picture from the tower that showed our airfield completely empty, and I said it looked spooky. - Yes, absolutely, as a maintainer, you're used to seeing aircraft on the flight line, and to see a flight line with no aircraft, it's just, it's amazing, it's astonishing, and it's a little eerie, yes. - So, we were getting briefings during this hurricane evacuation, and I remember somebody saying that we had four aircraft that were hard-broken. What's the process that goes behind, okay, this thing's busted pretty bad, how do we get it in the air safely and get it off station, so it and the crew are safe? - You know, that's either parts showing up on time and putting it back together and doing an operational checkout and making sure everything's flight worthy. Sometimes you may have to cannibalization process, where we may take a piece from another aircraft to make that aircraft flight worthy. You can't really throw it in black and white. Sometimes, it's being creative, but we do it by the book, and we do it so the aircraft's safe and the people flying it are safe. - So, I guess what I'm trying to do is impress to the folks back home who are listening who might be in their car, listening to a podcast, this is kind of a Herculean effort to get all of those aircraft off station. - It is a terrific undertaking and you really have to live it to understand how much work, how much effort, and the manpower that you need to make that sort of thing happen. - Yeah, absolutely and this segues perfectly into a subject that I wanted to talk about, well, reservists. The 315th airlift wing is a reserve airlift wing. We've got probably 2300 people and we're not like your active duty counterparts, where they're out here everyday. Most people in our wing have separate jobs, separate lives. They commute in to do this. Across the Air Force, you see this cross the Air Force Reserve, but here in the 315th, I think your all's unit, the maintenance here at this base is the most seamless I've ever seen. Other than having typically a few more gray hairs, you know, I think when you're out on the flight line, you guys, it's seamless. You don't know who's a reservist and who's active duty. - It is amazing to see it and I've been here for quite a while, like yourself. You know, when we have people on orders, long term orders, they integrate seamlessly. You don't know who is 437th active duty or who's 315th reservist, and it's amazing, 'cause some of the active duty component will train our reservists and some of our reservists will train active duty, so it is truly a one team, no seam. You can't tell the difference and it probably works here better than I've ever seen it work anywhere before. - It's pretty awesome, because when I get out on the flight line, I am a reservist, so whenever I go out there, and I start doing a job, again, they don't notice, they don't necessarily know I'm a reservist, it's just we're all working together to get that one job done. If I have a question, they definitely help out. If they have a question, I help out, so it's always very well integrated. - So, and I think our culture is shifted over the years, as well. When I was on active duty, I was an active duty Staff Sergeant and when I thought of the reserves, I didn't understand the difference. For me, a reservist was the 50 year old Staff Sergeant that I saw at the BX and I think our culture has changed and I think for me, what an eyeopening event, just coming into the reserve and seeing the professionalism and the level of skill that, what I didn't realize, and what I know a lot of active duty people don't realize, the experience base comes from the reserve. - Actually, that was something I wanted to touch upon. You know, we have some reservists who have been here a long time. Some recently retired, but still a couple of them have been around as long as the C17 has been around, so when it comes to experience, we're second to none and that's what we bring to the table as reservists, that we're here for a long period of time. We have a lot of knowledge about the aircraft itself, and we do impart that information to anybody who comes here, whether it's active duty, you know, we've had the Australians here, a lot of different other countries that have bought the C17, and they get their experience from us, as well as the active duty component. - Sure, absolutely, and to touch on the experience level of the reservists, it goes across the wing. It goes across the reserve, not just here in maintenance. It's everywhere. I think we did a study several years ago, when we were talking about flyers, and we were talking about the experience base in flying. When we pulled the numbers, nine out of the top ten hour holders, flight time holders in a C17, were reservists and I think a lot of that has to do with our culture and the way we stay in one place for as long as we want, pretty much, and the guys come out and just fly, and then go do their civilian job, and come back and fly, so they don't have to leave and deploy as much and transfer to staff jobs. - You know, it's funny you bring that up. You may be aware, a couple of months ago, we had a team come in here and they were analyzing and checking out the process of total Force integration, and I can tell you, I was in some of the meetings where our operators, whether it be 315, 437, like us here in aircraft maintenance, they were seamless. They work together hand in hand. Our people training their people, their people training our people. - Yeah, and going back to the maintenance aspect of your job, I've always considered you guys the unsung heroes of the base. I think between maintainers and security forces. The flyers, the pilots, the load masters, some of the other career fields that may seem a little more sexy ... (laughter) I'm not talking about you guys. (laughter) - Of course. Let's face it, nothing sexier than an operator, right? A pilot. - Well, I don't know, I've seen some of those guys over there. No, just kidding. But going back to it, when they fly a mission, whether it's a war time mission, or a humanitarian mission or taking the president or the vice president or the secretary of this or that over to where they need to go, they're the folks on the news. Behind every one of those missions is a group of maintainers that busted their hump to get that plane off the ground. - Yes, sir, so when it comes down to that, I really do get the joy out of knowing that that aircraft was able to take off safely and was able to do the mission that it was meant to do, so no, I'm not in the limelight, I'm not out there on TV or anything like that. I mean, it may be nice, but I'm perfectly content and happy knowing that this mission was done and something during an inspection, I might have found that wouldn't have been safe for the jet, and we changed it out and was able to get that out on the air. - I like to think of us as the offensive line. - Okay, yeah. - So, the quarterbacks are the pilots, and they get a lot of the glory, but without us up front, making sure that we're blocking any troubles they may have, the mission doesn't happen. You know, I was thinking about this the other day, when we first started talking about this show. As a maintainer, I don't think there's a greater joy, you can acquire any more pride than when you see an aircraft you worked on, serviced, repaired, when it blocks out of here, and you know it's going on to a mission where it's taking humanitarian aid somewhere or bullets, bombs, or warriors overseas, I can't describe it. I can't describe it. It's amazing just to see that aircraft leave and knowing that you are part of that. - Nice, challenges, what are your challenges? - There's some parts that are more difficult to get to. There's somethings that you really have to dig hard in the book and ask a lot of different people about that particular part. There's somethings that could be little bit more difficult than others, and there's something that, with the efforts we have an amazing team. Just being able to talk it out with each other and really find something that works, and always afraid that I might've missed something, so I'm not afraid to ask and say, "Hey, can you just double check this?" - And that's mind blowing to a lot of people who aren't in the military. You're 24 years old. - Yes sir. - You're 24 years old, you've got a 200 million dollar aircraft, you've got upwards of 100, to 200 people, not counting the equipment that you may be sending overseas. You're responsible for making sure that thing gets there. - And that's definitely a really hard part to kind of carry on your shoulders, but that's something with all the training that we've gone through, and just knowing that it's attention to detail. What I personally do, is kind of put myself in that position. Is this something that I would actually like to fly on? Is this a part that's good or is this a part that's bad? I mean, would I fly on this jet or would I have my family get on this jet and be safe and know that it's gonna be ready, so I really put myself in the position where I wanna make sure that that is ready to go. - Chief, what do you think? - Coming from a different technical level, I see funding issues. It's been a challenge as of late. As you know, we used to be a larger workforce and now we're doing the same job, actually the operational tempo is higher than ever, and yet the manning is kind of at an all time low, so that's our challenge. - Well, let's talk a little bit more about that. I see it where I'm at, but I don't see it as much where the rubber meets the road. Since I've been in the military 23 years now, and from the day I came in, they've always talked about doing more with less, but you don't know what that actually means until you get in your shoes, Chief. When you're talking about, you've got missions to do and you're responsible for making this happen. - You know, our man power in the aircraft maintenance squadron, at one point in time, we were 450 strong, and now we're somewhere around 230, and although we have slightly fewer aircraft, we still have a large number of aircraft and they still are flying continually, and they're getting older and some parts are getting harder to acquire. So, it does create challenges, but as maintainers, we find a way to make things work and fix things, and we do. - Yeah, absolutely, and you guys do a great job. Before we go, I wanna ask you all about, what's the most rewarding part of what you do to contribute to the mission? - One of the most rewarding parts for me is definitely knowing that you have made a difference. It's not a question about it. It's knowing that you have a team that you work with. It's knowing that you have a family that you can always lean on, and knowing that if you have a question, you can always ask it and once you get out there on that jet, you start making that mission happen, and sometimes you know what that mission is gonna be. If it's going over to help with the hurricane relief, or if it's dropping some troops off overseas, it's knowing that you are able to contribute to getting that jet up, and being able to make that mission happen, being able to help out the Air Force, so with me, it's definitely knowing that, no matter what it is that you're doing as far as inspection, as far as changing a tire, or changing a break, it's definitely knowing that regardless of what you do, that is contributing to the mission. Without your part, that mission may not have happened. - As I said earlier, you know, once upon a time, and it still brings me joy to see our aircraft depart out of here, especially at things like when we have that large formation exercise, when we launch 22 aircraft out of here, and you see those things depart 30 seconds apart. It's amazing. As a Chief now, as a Flight Chief, to see a Senior Airmen Mitchel come in and watch him progress throughout the years to become a Staff Sergeant Mitchel, to become a Tech Sergeant Mitchel, to become a Master Sergeant Mitchel, it makes me proud to see those young men and women ... - By the way, he was smiling when you said Master Sergeant. (laughter) - I appreciate that. - Someday, that's gonna happen, and you know, without the hard work of Sergeant Mitchel here, without his dedication to his job and his duty and his country, we, as a team, couldn't make that happen, so to see someone come up throughout the ranks, it fills me with pride and joy. - Thank you so much. Well, gentlemen, thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to come and be our first segment here on Behind the Wing, and I really appreciate it, so thank you so much for joining us. - It was a pleasure, Major, thank you. - Yes, thank you very much. - Major Capps, those were some amazing airmen with amazing stories to tell about what they do and to hear their dedication to their job and the fact that, you know, we are family, and it was stressed so much during their conversation. - Yeah, I love the fact that you've got this 24 year old airman who's so passionate about taking care of that aircraft, because he knows his fellow airmen are flying on it. How cool is that? - Oh, it's simply amazing and to know that, again, it's folks like them that put 27 of those jets up in the air just a few weeks ago, for Hurricane Irma. - Absolutely, so let's transition just for a minute and talk about our news. What's going on in the wing? - Michael Dukes is here in the studio. Hey, Michael. - Hey, thanks, Wayne. - This is our not fake news segment, by the way. (laughter) This is our real news. This is what's going on in the 315th airlift wing and around Joint Base Charleston. Michael, what's going on? - Okay, well, our biggest news that we have this month is our new podcast. - (laughs) Hey, you're listening to it right now and I hear there's some pretty good looking guys hosting it. (laughter) You got a voice for radio. (laugher) - The podcast is available on iTunes and it's on our app as well. - Yes, if people in the wing don't have our mobile smartphone app, they're really missing out. All you have to do is search your app store under 315th Airlift Wing. It's got everything you need to know from news, to our social media, to announcements ... - UTA schedules - Ah, vital. - Anything you can think of and it will sync directly to your calendar. I found that out and that's a cool feature, so my wife asks me, "When do you work?" and I always say, "I don't know." (laugher) And then it goes right to your calendar, so I'm all set now. - Michael, if I'm a droid user, is it both for Apple and Droid users? - Yes, absolutely. Pretty much anybody who has the ability to download and listen to podcasts can do so. - Awesome. - So, if you have a favorite app that you use to listen to that, you can just search for Behind the Wing and you'll find us. - Nice, not Wind Beneath Our Wings? (laughter) No, sorry, go ahead, Michael. What else do we have going on? - Alright, so the next big news, you guys talked about a little bit in the opening was our series of hurricanes that we've had whip through here. - Yes. - Yeah, it's been a big, big focus for everybody. - So, what do we have going on with the hurricanes? - Early off, we had some of our air medical teams get last minute orders to station at Little Rock for Hurricane Harvey, now we're looking at Irma and Maria, two major hurricanes that whipped through the Bahamas and up through the Florida area. - So, our air medical evacuation squadron they were actually tasked this weekend to support some of the missions down in Florida. So, essentially, they left, and without orders or anything, they just got the short notice tasking, so they're down there actually helping medical evacuation out of the Caribbean and Florida and I think that's absolutely amazing. - Oh yeah, definitely. Another thing, kind of hurricane related, the Air Force Ball. - Yes! - That's right, it was canceled and now rescheduled, I believe, correct Michael? - Right, it's been rescheduled for October 21st and that's not a UTA weekend, so if you need to get a refund, you need to do so by October 2nd. - So, that's next week. So, early next week, that's on Monday. So, if you want a refund, get it now. Joann Gillespie in our wing, in the Airman and Family Readiness is your point of contact, so if you need a refund, just contact Joann. What about me? I spend 90 bucks on a new pair of shoes. (laughter) - Ah, you're on your own. Those are some nice shoes, Major, nice shoes. - I spent 90 bucks on a new pair of shoes and I don't even get to go dance. (laugher) - Well, I'm sure there's a prom or some other dance out there, sir. I'm sure there's some place you can go. - I promise I'm not gonna be crashing any proms. (laughter) - Do we have an extension for Joann? Do we have a number to reach her at? - Yeah, she's at 963-5818. - Fantastic, Michael, thank you. Thank you so much. - So, 5818, call Joann, she'll take care of you, but also, as soon as the process goes, as soon as all of these people figure out if they're going or not, they're gonna open up ticket sales again for people who missed the boat buying their tickets and I think that's you, Bobby, is that correct? - Yes, sir, you are correct. I would be one of those people who missed the boat, so I'll probably be purchasing some tickets for October. - Sounds good. - And some 90 dollar pair of shoes? (laughter) - I will not by buying a 90 dollar pair of shoes. I will stick with the ones I got from basic training. (laughter) - So, let me tell you this story here. I was so aggravated. I blew out my shoes when I went to D.C. I guess I walked all over Capital Hill and I had a blowout in my shoes. If you've ever had that happen, seems to happen to me more than it should. (laughter) But, I go to Clothing Sales to buy some shoes, they're out of everything. Looks like everybody else is buying them for the Air Force Ball, and the only ones they have left are the 90 dollar shoes, so I was aggravated and I have a nice pair of shiny 90 dollar shoes that look just like the 35 dollar shoes the guy next to me will be wearing. - Those are the best 90 dollar shoes you'll ever ... - They better be. - At least you didn't have to buy women's shoes, so ... (laughter) - That's true, that's true. - Heels or something. - Yeah, don't see the Major in heels. I don't think he could do them well. - I would've rocked 'em, don't judge me. (laughter) Alright, what else do we have for news? - Pretty much the last item that I have is we have, well it's been occurring throughout the summer, and it continues to occur, we've got a bunch of people coming back from the desert. - Yeah, big deployment. Our big deployment cycle is finishing up and if you've been to Charleston International Airport lately, you've seen a lot of 315th airlift wing members coming back, and when the big groups come back, we have the local news, so I wanna say thank you to Live 5 News, Channel 4, and Count on 2, everybody's been so supportive of getting the word out and I love nothing better than seeing those family stories. As you're at the airport and you see the loved one who's been gone for six months, which it doesn't seem like a lot to somebody, but six months to somebody working that's away from your family, that's a long time. I think we've all been there and it's rough and that welcome home is always kinda nice. - Oh yeah, and and even if it's not your loved one coming back, it touches you. - Yeah. - Yeah, definitely, because while that service member has been deployed, the family's been back here holding the fort down. - Exactly, and we, on our last welcome home that we had with the airport, oh, it was heart wrenching. We had a young airman who came back and he met his daughter for the very first time. - Oh wow. - Imagine, he left when his wife was pregnant and he came home and he's got a new baby girl and he said he was so nervous the entire trip home, because he didn't know how she would act when she saw him and I'm like, "Wow, that's the least of your problems, man." It's a baby, she's gonna cry. (laughter) - Yeah, exactly. - Ya know, but golly what a ... Yeah, exactly, what a great thing, though, to see. So, we wanna welcome all of those people home and everybody else will be home within the next couple months, so thank you for your service. Thank you for everything you do, and even in our very own office, our own Lieutenant Rashard Cokeson's been holding down the fort over in the desert and doing a great, great job and he'll be home in a couple weeks, so welcome home Rashard, if you get to hear this from the desert. - Yeah, we can't wait to have you back. Dearly missed. - So, well, Michael's that all you got for the news? - That's pretty much all I have this month, yes. - Alright, sounds good. So, thanks so much Michael, for your take on the news. - You're welcome. - Well, let's transition into our news talk segment for just a minute and let's keep the conversation going, but I wanna talk about recruiting. - Yes, Major Wayne, that's such a vital part to what we do and to growing our family here at Joint Base Charleston. - And a lot of times, we get so many emails and so many calls of people actually calling public affairs and wanting to know a little bit more about the Air Force Reserve and they're sometimes afraid to call a recruiter. Joining us in the studio, Senior Master Sergeant Chip Harbor, he is a Recruiting Flight Chief here at Joint Base Charleston. Welcome to the studio. - Thank you. - So, let's talk about recruiting in general. What do you say to those folks who just want information or might be apprehensive that think this might be something I wanna do, but I don't know yet? - Well, first of all, there's no fear in calling a recruiter (laughs). We're pretty laid back, we're here to help, and basically what we do is find out if the Air Force Reserve is a good fit for you. You call, talk to us, we talk about what you're wanting to do, a little bit about your background, and then we answer any questions and tell you about the Air Force Reserve. - So, how do you do that? How do you find out if somebody's, what's a good fit for somebody? Talk about some of the jobs and what makes a person a good fit, to be able to put this uniform on everyday. - Okay, well a good fit to me is somebody who wants to serve and really, in two areas. They might be somebody off the street, what we would call non-prior service, never served in the military, but a lot of folks out there who have served in the Air Force and even in other services, a lot of rumors out there, that if you're in another service, you're a prior Army or prior Marine, you can't be in the Air Force Reserve. - So, that was started by those Army recruiters, that right? (laughter) - They do what they can to keep us from the best, so ... In all truthfulness, we love our prior service experience, whether it's Army aviation, Marine aviation, administration, medical, I mean, we've got a variety of jobs here, like I say, you tell your recruiter what your interests are and we go from there. So, Sergeant Pilch has a great story and I love to tell this one whenever I can about his experience on how he joined the Air Force. He joined the Air Force kinda late in life. He was, how old were you? - I was 34. - He barely made the cut off, so he was what you call an honorary Commander. It's a civic outreach program that the active duty add and they took him on a civic leader tour and I was actually on that tour and he came up to me afterwards and he said, "I think I wanna join the Air Force Reserve." and I said, "You know it's not like that trip you went on." - Sometimes. - Well, sometimes, yeah. - It's got its moments. - He came in and we talked for a little while and the next thing you know, I ended up hiring him and he's been in here awhile. What do you think, does that sum it up for you? - Yeah, that is the quick and dirty of it, but no, honestly, kinda to your point, Sergeant, about selecting your job, that was one of the great things about it, was I was able to talk to the Major and kinda discuss my interest, and that's when he stated, "I may have a spot in Public Affairs." So, it was great that I was able to select my job and then, after the training, come back to Charleston, and then serve in the role that I had chosen. - Wow, so that's a good point. That's a popular question we get. "Do I get to pick my job?" Well, some people have their friends or family that have been active duty full-time, so they join the Air Force, didn't know what their job was or where they were gonna live. Well, that's not what the Air Force Reserve does. When you join, you know your job and you know where you're gonna work, because you go away to training, but you come back here. So, whether you're a full-time college student, or you have another job on the outside, the Air Force Reserve starts out as a part-time position. If later you wanna look at full-time opportunities, that's up to you. - That's great. - So, what you're saying, is somebody can just do this part-time, on a very part-time basis, around their schedule? - Right, so especially young folks, they're going to college, need some extra educational money, maybe they don't plan on going to college, just need an extra skill, so we have what we call Civil Engineering, construction, Rinse Turner's on the aviation world, that's my background, avionics. I learned a lot from the Air Force and took it into the civilian world, so that's some people's focus. - So, I went on a mission last year to Turkey, I believe Bobby was with me on that, and we had two load masters. It was during the holiday season, so both were in school. One was in law school and the other one was an education major, so he was gonna be a teacher, and I thought it was amazing how, you know, because I'm full time, that's just what I do, I do this everyday, but these folks, they would plan these trips around their normal lives, and that can be done. - Right, so your dad's Army Reserve or whatever it may be, they did one week of the month and two weeks a year. It was preset, everybody picked up, went together. We're too big for that, we have an active mission, and a lot of people do work it around their schedules, so whether if you're a student on holiday break or summer break, teachers especially. Now, the minimum is you work one weekend a month and 15 days of active duty and you can break that up, however, it's between you and your supervisor if you do more, so there are people out here who do the minimum 39 days a year and there are people out here who do over a hundred days a year. - Right. - Really depends on what your job is and what your availability and ... - So, what your saying, it's one heck of a part-time job? - Absolutely. (laughter) And we get that, so you join for extra money, they join for educational benefits, and like I say, the war, the prior service folks we talked about earlier, that came in from other branches, to get the retirement. They got out, they've served, they raised some kids, and they say, "Hey, I'd like to come back in and finish and get that retirement." - And you can stay in Charleston. You can stay where you wanna be. That's the thing that I like about the reserve, is you're kind of in charge of your own destiny. - Right, absolutely. If you love the beach and love a beautiful city and a great wing, you'll stay. - So, what's the best way to get in touch with you if I wanna find out more about the Air Force Reserve, what kind of positions are out there, or if you just wanna learn a little bit more about it before committing, if you will? - Well, you can give us a call at 1-800-257-1212 or visit the web at AFResrve.com and check out the opportunities there. - AFReserve.com and you can find out all about it. - And I had the opportunity to sit down with one of our operators and that will be coming up next. - Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule. We appreciate it. - Thank you. - So, we would love to hear from you. Please reach out to us. We're on Facebook, we're on all these social media platforms. Comment and tell us what you think about this podcast. Leave us a message, we'd love to hear from you. (upbeat music) - So, I'm sitting here with Captain Stan Shmutzer with the 701st Airlift Squadron and we've been busy this whole summer. Captain, would you mind sharing with me a little bit, what's been going on? - We've had a lot of stuff this year, a lot of stuff we was able to do that, some that we do a lot, some that we don't do a lot. We're able to do a couple of big air shows in England, that we're participating in, we actually were asked to come back to, 'cause we put on such a great show, and it's just phenomenal to see people turn out in the UK for something as, what we take and see and do everyday, and it just blows their mind. We've done a bunch of humanitarian stuff, obviously. Not only just with the hurricane relief efforts, but also with some of the stuff we do down in Haiti for bringing, just sometimes basic water supplies that are still needed down there. They're still recovering years after the earthquake. - Right, yeah, I've seen those missions take off from here. Now, let's go back a little bit on the airshow and one airshow in particular, I had the blessing of flying along with you guys, was the Yeovilton Air Day, where your squadron flew the Mach Loop. Would you mind kinda sharing with us a little bit about that experience and how really impactful it was to the aviation world? - We never dreamed it would have the rapport that it did. The big thing was, we were the biggest airplane to fly that Mach Loop and it took, since we were non-UK aircraft, we had to do a bunch of coordination, and we had our UK buddy from the 14th tagged along and did a bunch of the planning and coordination with the UK government, really extended out his expertise and helped plan it and coordinate it and we were doing it for training essentials and low and behold, it was minutes after they were taking pictures of us, that it shows up everywhere, including Boeing's website wanting pictures. We never imagined it would be that big of an impact. - It was exciting, I know, being on the ground with y'all, you know, to see the local media show up and press for interviews and everything, so it was ... - Oh, those guys were awesome, super, super nice. - Yeah, let's touch on the humanitarian aid. You know, recently, the United States has been the focus of two major hurricanes and a lot of our air crews have played a major role in that, and you yourself are actually a Delta Pilot, correct, full-time? - Yes, sir. - And a lot of pilots have taken some time off to assist in that, can you kinda explain what's going on with that? - Yeah, we've always, anything humanitarian-wise, whether it's stateside or overseas, but particularly stateside, you know, that's hitting home, so we've had guys and I've sat scheduling desks a few days during that period, and I'd get calls say, "Hey, if there's humanitarian stuff coming up, sign me up, I'm in." And a lot of these guys, be it pilots, load masters, or even AE, they'll take leave from their civilian job, and it's a pay cut for 'em, so they come here and what to do humanitarian stuff, being hauling 18 pallets of water or a school bus, it doesn't matter, they'll build crews, and trips have stand-by and if they need it, we're there. - Right. - So, we see it all the time when stuff comes up, people step up, no questions asked. - Wow. - It's pretty amazing. - That's fantastic, and it just highlights what our airmen are capable of and their spirit to serve. Now, you've got kind of a unique path to becoming a pilot, if I did my research correct. You were a load master at first and then became a pilot? - I took the hard way I guess. (laughter) I was a load master seven years, became an instructor, and my squadron is just unreal. They supported me the whole way. The leadership has been outstanding and I was extremely fortunate enough, I finished my degree while we were pretty much hot and heavy after mobilization of 305, and then crossed over, as they say, to the dark side. (laughter) To become a pilot in '08, so it's everything I wanted to fulfill my dream of following my grandfather's footsteps. He was a transport pilot and there was no other way I could've done it, and having the support from my family and also from the unit, is impressive. - That's fantastic, sir. Now all the missions that you do fly, what are your most favorite missions to fly? - Oh man, you know, I don't really have any quote unquote blacklist missions or whatnot, it's just the opportunity. I guess I could say I do prefer stateside missions, just for obvious reasons, shorter days, but again, especially with humanitarian, it hits home. It's either natural disasters that affect stuff in your backyard and you can be there in a moment's notice and help out just your fellow American. - No doubt. Well, that's fantastic. Captain, it's been a pleasure sitting with you, talking about what you and your squadron has done over the summer and we look forward to many more interviews with other members of your squadron, and just thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to sit and talk with us. - It's my pleasure. - Alright, thank you, sir. (upbeat music - Hey, Bobby, that was a great segment. I always love hearing from Shooter. I've been all over the world with that guy. Heck of a guy. - Yeah, the stories he has to tell are simply amazing and some of this stuff, you just can't make up. - I think he's been flying since he was about four and a half. - Oh my goodness. (laughter) - Unbelievable. - Yeah, I've known him for awhile, so when we started doing this, we talked about, okay, we need an operator in here, we wanna talk about the flying side of the house, I said, "It's gotta be Shooter." Just a great guy to talk to. - Definitely, definitely. And you know, the missions our jets fly really are all over the globe, whether it's humanitarian aid, resupply missions, I mean, our jets just really go everywhere. - And I love hearing the behind the scenes stuff, so thanks for covering that for us on our last segment. - My pleasure, my pleasure. - Our last segment of Behind the Wing. We're about out of time, so I wanna thank everybody for taking the time to listen to Behind the Wing, the 315th airlift wing's official podcast. - Yeah, so be sure to stay up to date with everything that we do on the Twittergram and Book of Faces, 'cause that's where you'll find the latest and greatest of what's going on with the 315th. - Absolutely, so we're on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, you can find us at 315th Airlift Wing. You can also see our official website. Just google 315th Airlift Wing. We're all over the place. We also have a YouTube channel that we've got some amazing videos of C17's and our folks in action, so we're excited to share all of that social goodness with everybody. - So, please stay tuned and until our next podcast ... - And we will see you next time on Behind the Wing. (upbeat music)