56th Maintenance Group staff
Mission: Plan, monitor, train, manage, and adapt through precise scheduling and efficient execution to produce the world’s finest maintainers and fighter pilots
Demographics: There are 166 active-duty and 14 civilian members
Leadership
Section commander: Maj. Daniel Kline
Maintenance operations superintendent: Master Sgt. Heather Tufty
Weapons standardization superintendent: Chief Master Sgt. Patrick Edem
Quality assurance: Chief Master Sgt. Michael Schrick
Training: Master Sgt. Heather Parker
Responsibilities: Oversees smooth maintenance operations on more than 79 F-16s, 42 F-35s; builds, executes and analyzes the maintenance and flying schedule; manages and provides training for 1,406 military and 193 civilian group personnel; manages key group programs and enforces standards; serves as liaison to Detachment 12, 372nd Training Squadron.
56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron
Mission: To provide intermediate and flightline maintenance, phase inspections, structural repair, fabrication, transient alert, aerospace ground equipment, aircraft wheels and tires, armament systems, and munitions in support of training the world’s best F-16 pilots and mission-ready crew chiefs
Demographics: There are 384 military and 84 civilians
Leadership
Commander: Maj. Jeffrey Kaepp
Superintendent: Chief Master Sgt. Ben Carson
First sergeant: Senior Master Sgt. Jody Nededog
Responsibilities: Maintains 542 pieces of aerospace ground equipment, 2,181 pieces of alternate mission equipment and a munitions stockpile valued at $72 million. Perform aircraft inspection and repair of 78 F-16 and 42 F-35 aircraft.
Fun facts: The squadron was redesignated the 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron June 7,1977, at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., the first equipment maintenance squadron in the Air Force. The squadron was reassigned to Luke AFB April 1, 1994.
56th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron
Mission: Provide safe, reliable aircraft, equipment and munitions to train the world’s finest F-35 and F-16 pilots and crew chiefs
Demographics: There are more than 708 military, civilian and contractor members, including 130 Singapore maintainers
Leadership
Commander: Lt. Col. Scott Hall
Maintenance operations officer: Maj. Jessica Williams
Superintendent: Chief Master Sgt. Neal Raben
First sergeants: Master Sgts. Jeremy Dwyer, Marco Escandon and Gregory Spiczka
Responsibilities: Provides organizational level maintenance for 78 Block 20, 25 and 42 F-16A/B/C/D aircraft and 42 F-35A aircraft valued at more than $5 billion. Also has a $636,000 annual budget to ensure mission-ready aircraft to directly support U.S. Air Force active and Reserve components, Singapore and Taiwan air forces pilot training.
56th Component Maintenance Squadron
Mission: Provide specialized component repair of propulsion, avionics, accessories, perform tests, measurements and diagnostics on equipment systems to train the world’s finest F-16 pilots; support affiliate units
Demographics: There are 183 military and 58 civilian members
Leadership
Commander: Maj. Anthony Sutton
Maintenance superintendent: Chief Master Sgt. Frank Buck
First sergeant: Senior Master Sgt. Deborah Hofstra
Responsibilities: Avionics flight provides test and repair of heads-up displays, throttle grips and signal processors. The electrical/environmental section repairs electrical wiring harnesses, generators, batteries and oxygen system. Egress inspects and repairs ejection seats, aircraft canopies and related systems. The fuels section inspects and repairs aircraft fuel systems, external fuel tanks and hydrazine driven emergency power system. The hydraulics section inspects and repairs landing gear, brakes, hydraulic accumulators and flight-control drive units. The propulsion flight performs all aspects of uninstalled jet engine maintenance including inspection, disassembly, repair, reassembly and testing. The precision measurement equipment laboratory provides calibration of measurements and test equipment including torque wrenches, radio, RADAR and communications signal generators and pressure gauges.
Fun fact: Did you know that the ACES II ejection seat maintained by CMS has up to 125 explosive components that all fire in a 1.3-second choreographed sequence to get the pilot safely out of an aircraft?