58th AMXS keeps aircraft mission ready Published Feb. 5, 2019 By Staff Sgt. Dylan Nuckolls 377th Air Base Wing Public Affairs KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- When someone steps foot on the Kirtland flight line, they will see several air frames and countless numbers of Airmen working with those aircraft. Most of those Airmen fall under one of the three aircraft maintenance units assigned to the 58th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. The 58th AMXS works day in and day out to keep the 58th Special Operations Wings’ training mission flying by ensuring aircraft are always ready. “Our mission here at the 58th AMXS is to generate the sorties today that produce tomorrow’s Special Operations and Personnel Recovery aviators,” said Lt. Col. Scott Ruppel, 58th AMXS commander. The squadron is made up of three AMUs working on five different aircraft. The 415th AMU maintains the HC-130J Combat King II and the MC-130J Commando II, the 512th AMU maintains the HH-60G Pave Hawk and UH-1N Huey and the 71st AMU maintains CV-22 Osprey. According to Ruppel, with the incredible support of every Airman, AF civilian, contractor and partners from the 150th Air National Guard that work on the aircraft every day on the ground, the 58th SOW is able to afford their aircrew the training that they need to get their job done in the air. “I firmly believe that this squadron has the hardest working maintainers in Air Education Training Command, if not the Air Force,” Ruppel said. Every one of the different airframes provide a challenge, but the CV-22 provides the biggest burden on our Airmen, according to Ruppel. “The maintenance burden--especially down on the CV-22 side--that they bear is remarkable,” he continued. That burden has led Airmen in the 71st AMU to innovate and find ways to improve maintenance. According to Ruppel, the 71st AMU is developing locally manufactured tooling to clean out the fine dirt that gets into different parts of the aircraft when it flies on training sorties. Doing this will help mitigate system failures and save maintenance hours and ultimately improve the readiness of the aircraft to fly. Getting an aircraft back to flying status, after being down for maintenance is one of the more rewarding things, according to Staff Sgt. Scott Zednick, 71st AMU CV-22 Tilt Rotor Maintenance craftsman. “Knowing that I have completed everything to the best of my ability and that plane goes from a broken status to being able to fly the next day,” said Zednick. “I know I have put in blood, sweat and tears to get it up in the air.” That dedication to the mission is seen by leadership every day. “The work that they’re doing is phenomenal, the quality is on point and the fact that they do it day in and day out with a positive can do attitude,” Ruppel said. “If that doesn’t get you inspired about serving, nothing will.” With the hard working Airmen of the 58th AMXS working on aircraft to keep them mission ready, the 58th SOW will continue to ‘Train Warriors, Professionalize Airmen, [and] Employ Airpower.’