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Vigilance, keen eye lead to petty officer’s safety award

  • Published
  • By Mike W. Ray
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  A late-night inspection of a Navy jet by a tired but eagle-eyed junior enlisted member stationed at Tinker Air Force Base revealed a crack in a critical component, which probably saved the airplane and the lives of her crewmembers.

The vigilance of Petty Officer 2nd Class Brandi R. Greer in Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron FOUR earned her the title of "Safety Pro of the Year" for Strategic Communications Wing ONE, the Navy wing at Tinker AFB. The petty officer also received a commemorative coin and a letter of commendation from Capt. Timothy Pederson, commander of SCW-1.

The incident occurred after a flight last fall in an E-6B Mercury that ended at an Air National Guard base in Bangor, Maine.

"It had been a long day and we had finished a long flight," Petty Officer Greer said. "It was dark when we took off and it was dark when we landed" around midnight.

Flights in the E-6B airborne command post often last 10 to 12 hours, not including two or three hours in pre-flight preparation, said Lt. Sam Cruz, Petty Officer Greer's supervisor.

Crew members on E-6B flights are cross-trained; on this particular flight, the Mercury carried a crew of 14.

Petty Officer Greer's "day job" is in administration, in the area of security clearances. On missions, though, she is assigned to communications and performs post-flight inspections of a specific bay of the Mercury, checking for damaged wiring, missing nuts or bolts, etc.

Lieutenant Cruz and Petty Officer Greer both said it is routine for aircrew members to perform multiple jobs. "She was taught that after landing, you put the plane to bed," the lieutenant said. Aircrew members are cross-trained because, "We go to a lot of independent areas where we have to do the work ourselves," said Chief Ben Gonzales, a VQ-4 flight engineer.

Armed with a small flashlight she carries in her flight suit, Petty Officer Greer examined a bay beneath the plane's fuselage after the E-6B landed in Maine. When she opened the bay door, "more water than normal" spilled out, perhaps "a couple of cups worth." Her curiosity piqued, the petty officer examined the fiberglass enclosure around the Air Cycle Machine water separator and found a crack that extended the length of the component's input joint.

Immediately she notified Chief Gonzales and alerted one of the pilots, too.

The damaged component is critical - it regulates pressure in the cabin -- but a malfunction is rare. Chief Gonzales said he thinks the 6-inch-long crack was caused by high pressure and the age of the part. A crack in an Air Cycle Machine water separator has occurred "maybe five times" during the 12 years he's been a flight engineer, the chief said.

A replacement component had to be ordered and then flown to Bangor. "We were supposed to have a mission the next day," Petty Officer Greer recalled. Instead, "We were down for two or three days" while awaiting the replacement part, which took only a couple of hours to install.

Chief Gonzales asserted with confidence that if the damaged unit had not been detected and replaced, "We would have had an in-flight emergency, a loss of cabin pressurization, on our next flight."

The chief said he nominated Petty Officer Greer for a "safety pro" award for more than just one reason: "the damage occurred to a part that was beyond her training, the damage was not in a visible area, she is qualified beyond her rating, her attention to detail was exemplary, and the damaged component was a definite hazard."

"I was just doing my job," the petty officer said humbly.

Petty Officer Greer is a 25-year-old native of Kansas City, Mo. She enlisted in the Navy five and a half years ago, and has been stationed at Tinker for four and a half years. Her husband, Petty Officer 2nd Class Ryan Greer, is assigned to VQ-3, where he's training to become a flight engineer.