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RAF CROUGHTON, England — A team of five Airmen from the 1st Communications Maintenance Squadron is contributing to the ultimate success of the Air Force mission by maintaining what would appear to be just an empty field in England.
The Airmen are part of the 1st CMXS’s Cable and Antenna Theater Maintenance Team from Kapaun and have been traveling throughout the United Kingdom for the last month performing annual preventative maintenance inspections on antenna systems belonging to Royal Air Force Croughton and RAF Barford.
The antenna systems at these locations provide the capability for ground to air communication between bases and planes.
RAF Barford is a historic location in England. It was once used by the RAF in the 1930s to test jet engines and as a bomber-staging base during World War II. Today, along with RAF Croughton, it makes up the communications link for not only the Air Force but many NATO partners as well.
“Basically, when a flight crosses the Atlantic Ocean into Europe they need communication points along the way,” said Tech. Sgt. Scott Dunbar, Cable and Antenna Theater Maintenance Team chief. The team, part of a 24-person shop belonging to the 1st CMXS, uses tools and technical orders brought from their home station along with support equipment from other bases to tighten and repair tower guy-wires. They also do corrosion control checks, system testing and function checks.
Last year, U.S. Air Forces in Europe centralized all 2E6s in Germany, making the Cable and Antenna Theater Maintenance Team more important than ever because they’re in high demand.
Each member of the team is hand-picked to fill the special-duty assignment. With a 24-hour emergency response time, the Airmen know being on the road a lot to maintain the more than 600 antennas throughout Europe has become the norm.
“Being on the team can be challenging. We deploy a lot maintaining these systems, sometimes more than 180 days a year, but these systems are vital to communications of not only aircraft transiting the Atlantic, but U.S. Strategic Command, AWACs, JSTARS, the president, even the search and rescue capabilities of NASA,” Sergeant Dunbar said.
The simple location of these systems causes some unique challenges as well.
“The weather here especially causes some of the challenges we face, from causing the systems to lose reception to causing adverse working conditions,” said Staff Sgt. Sean Lavely, Cable and Antenna Theater Maintenance Team member. “Sometimes the wind makes it a little dicey being up there on the tower.”
But there are safety precautions built into the career field that prevent any unnecessary risk, such as not working on towers when winds are observed higher than 25 knots.
This sometimes can cause the work to become tedious, often having to be rescheduled until the weather subsides.
Although having to be on temporary duty to perform most of their job responsibilities can be tough, the capability these Airmen provide to the Air Force and its partners is invaluable.
“Without the Cable and Antenna Theater Maintenance Team and this location we would lose a significant portion of the high frequency coverage for Europe and the Atlantic Crossing,” said Staff Sgt. Chet Warren, 422nd Communications Squadron ground radio member from RAF Croughton.
The 1st CMXS is part of the 435th Air and Space Communications Group, one of the three groups that make up the new 435th Air and Ground Operations Wing headquartered at Ramstein.
To see photos of the team’s trip to the UK, visit www.ramstein.af.mil.
