654th CLSS to inactivate Wednesday

Published June 27, 2008
By Brandice J. Armstrong
72nd Air Base Wing Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- Big changes are in store for the 654th Combat Logistics Support Squadron and its members.
   Officials will inactivate the squadron July 2 and it is expected to remain "inactive" for the foreseeable future. The bulk of the squadron members will transfer to other Tinker units, other Air Force bases, or retire. The 25 remaining members will regroup under the 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group, in a new flight designated the Expeditionary Depot Maintenance Flight.
   "With the way the Air Force executes the fight today, we haven't had the severe aircraft battle damage that we had in the past during the Vietnam War and the Korean War when the CLSS was originally thought up," said Maj. Robert Copes, 654th CLSS commander, who will transfer to the 552nd Maintenance Squadron. "Air Force Materiel Command basically determined as a manpower savings, it would be beneficial to close the squadron down and transfer the workload to the depot repair lines within the 76th AMXG."
   Combat logistics support squadrons at Robins AFB, Ga.; and Hill Air Force Base, Utah; will also inactivate in 2009 and 2010, respectively.
   Combat logistics squadrons were first activated in the late 1960s, during the Vietnam War. The mission of the squadrons was to supply mobile logistics support including maintenance, resources and transportation, to air forces throughout the world.
   Since the 654th CLSS was activated in 1967, 33 commanders have managed the unit.
   Major Copes said the dismantling of the 654th CLSS will really change the way the Air Force processes requests for aircraft battle damage repairs, or ABDR, for B-52s, B-1s and KC-135s.
   "Rather than come directly to us, they will first go through the aircraft maintenance squadrons assigned to the 76th AMXG for them to accept the workload and if they can't accept the workload, then it will come to us the EDMX flight," Major Copes said.
   Workloads that arrive for training purposes will go to the expeditionary maintenance flight, a unit made up of 25 military members, led by a senior master sergeant. The flight will be made up of mainly bomber and tanker crew chiefs, and aircraft structural technicians.
   "Those 25 folks will perform the depot field-level repairs as required or do the ABDR mission if the need arises in hotspots like in Afghanistan or in Iraq," Major Copes said.
   Master Sgt. Marty Job, 654th CLSS Logistics Support Flight chief and acting first sergeant, is one of the members of the new flight.
   "We're going to be doing the same things we're doing now, fixing the airplanes a way that no one else can," Sergeant Job said.
   Others, such as Staff Sgt. Mark Wolf, 654th CLSS Unit Deployment manager, will transfer. Sergeant Wolf received orders to report to Robins AFB, after the deactivation ceremony. He said the squadron's inactivation will be beneficial to the Air Force, because aircraft battle damage repair is performed less and less, but to eliminate the depot capability is a loss. Overall, he said he will miss the unit and its camaraderie.
   "I think this is one of my best assignments so far," Sergeant Wolf said. "The neat thing about this unit is we're all professionals; we come here already skilled up and ready to go."
   Tech. Sgt. Al Bryant, 654th CLSS assistant production superintendent, who doesn't yet have reassignment orders, agreed.
    "I've done a lot of things that I wouldn't have had the opportunity to do working in the field," Sergeant Bryant said. "There's been a lot of cross utilization. My primary job is aircraft structural maintenance and in regular flight squadrons all you do is your job. This squadron has allowed me to work as a crew chief with hydraulics, and as an electrician. It gave me a basic knowledge of what other career fields do."
   Major Copes said even though the squadron is going away, its accomplishments and legacy should not be forgotten.
   "The mission that the professional Airmen perform within the combat logistics support squadron today is still going to be around at Tinker but it's just going to be accomplished in a different workcenter," the major said. "The work the squadron has done since 1967 should be honored and hallowed, because great accomplishments have happened. But, people can rest assured the combat logistics support squadron legacy will live on and be carried forward by those who remain in the expeditionary depot maintenance flight."
   The inactivation ceremony will be held 3 p.m. July 2 at the base theater. For more information, call Tech. Sgt. Jodi Rogers at 739-7722.