Maintenance operations center serves crucial role for mission success

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Matt Moorman
  • Staff Writer
Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, NC --  There is such a thing as meaningful paperwork, and the people at the 916th Maintenance Operations Center certainly know what it's all about.
It's easy to give credit to the maintainers because of their high visibility out on the flightline, but what people might not realize is that someone in a backshop has to coordinate the maintenance that takes place out there. Someone has to gather facts from the pilots and flight crews about what is broken on the airplanes before they are fixed, and that is where the MOC comes in.
Sitting in a dimly lit room that takes the eye a minute to adjust to, the primary mission of the personnel in MOC is to coordinate maintenance operations on a daily basis. The small shop consists of three air Reserve technicians and two traditional reservists. Their job includes debriefing the pilots and flightcrew members after each flight, coordinating and maintaining paperwork for maintenance and recording the mission capability of each aircraft.
Master Sgt. Fred Berger, a maintenance operations controller, explained that the biggest challenge working in the MOC is being able to handle five things at one time and understanding that's just the way it is.
"I think it's all worth the effort because I get to know a lot of people from many different units on the base," he said. "I value those relationships."
When they're not sending mission capability updates to the Pentagon or filing debriefing reports, the people in MOC are usually helping the flightline maintainers manage everyday taskings. It's a give-and-take relationship among the aircraft maintainers in the 916th. For example, MOC Airmen have been known to assist the crew chiefs with actual maintenance of the airplanes on low-paperwork days.
In fact, the people in the MOC exemplify the core value of service before self in their everyday mission by maintaining unassuming, yet highly important jobs.
"There is a deep sense of accomplishment knowing that I've helped maintain mission capability for the 916th MOC," said Tech. Sgt. William Porter, a traditional Reservist here. "I enjoy getting the job done and getting the planes out of here."
But MOC personnel do not only help the maintainers, they help the wing as a whole by ensuring the mission is accomplished.
"They're very, important to me and the maintenance group," said Lt. Col. Paul Weimer, 916th Maintenance Group commander. "That translates to being important to the operations group because they help to get the airplanes ready to go to support the mission."