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Navy instructor certifies Air Force artisans on Mercury maintenance

  • Published
  • By Marsha Childs
  • FRCSE Public Affairs
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --  The Navy's E-6B Mercury aircraft play a vital national security role, and an artisan at Naval Air Systems Command In-Service Support Center Detachment in Jacksonville, Fla., is ensuring these crucial assets remain airborne.

Kevin S. Hart, ISSC DET Jacksonville fleet field service representative, was tasked in early 2009 with training Air Force engineers and maintainers slated to perform the work on the critical aircraft used as airborne strategic command posts.

The Mercury is undergoing service life extension at Tinker as part of the working agreement between the Navy and Air Force maintenance facilities. The depot-level maintenance is being performed at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center under the engineering control of ISSC DET Jacksonville.

All Air Force depot artisans supporting the Mercury are required to complete training and be certified under the Navy's Local Process Specifications Program for Hole Quality.

Lacking a dedicated training room, Mr. Hart improvised a roving classroom. This mobility allows Mr. Hart to provide the training for various units scattered across the base.

"I have to be able to move to a new location at a moment's notice," he said.

Using items found at the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Office (DRMO) and pieces recovered from a dumpster, Hart fashioned a roving laboratory. He salvaged an old-model computer from the DRMO recyclable bin and stocked his cart with mostly cast-off items.

The three-day course includes classroom instruction on fatigue technology processes such as Split Sleeve Cold Expansion, BushLoc and ForceMate. It also covered Fastener Removal Tooling and Hole Quality training. The trainees spent the second half of the course learning the practical application of the procedures and processes already taught.

When the training concludes the month, Mr. Hart will have taught 14 classes, certifying about 160 Air Force personnel.

The Mercury is the last of the Boeing 707 commercially-derived airframes first accepted by the Navy in August 1989.

The aircraft operates as a communications relay center and strategic airborne command post to provide an endurable communications link between the National Command Authority and the Armed Forces.

Authority of the NCA rests with the U.S. president, the secretary of defense or their successors. They have the authority to direct command decisions to operational forces with nuclear weapons capability. The E-6B acts as a mobile, survivable platform from which the NCA can distribute their decisions to the forces should ground-based centers be destroyed or rendered inoperable.

"Take Charge and Move Out" (TACAMO) is a Navy Air Wing fully integrated at Tinker Air Force Base. TACAMO carries out a Navy mission in joint operations with the Air Force.

The commander of Strategic Communications Wing One provides operational control and administrative support for Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons Three, Four and Seven who support the TACAMO mission.