Patrick Space Force Base 920th Maintenance Group Earns Prestigious Effectiveness Award
By 920th Rescue Wing // February 12, 2023
920 RQW: What separates us from other maintenance groups is what we're doing to prepare for future conflict
BREVARD COUNTY • PATRICK SPACE FORCE BASE, FLORIDA – The 920th Maintenance Group earned the 2022 Maintenance Effectiveness Award for the second consecutive year.
The 920th MXG brought home the 2022 Air Force Reserve Command’s Lt. Gen. Leo Marquez Award MEA Category 2 (Medium), recognizing their efforts of providing safe, serviceable, and available equipment.
“What separates us from other maintenance groups is what we’re doing to prepare for future conflict. We are preparing for highly contested combat operations and innovating in that space with a scalable Personnel Recovery Task Force concept.
We’re finding new ways to employ weapons; new ways to pack and move with maintenance, equipment, and supplies; new tactics, techniques, and procedures,” said Col. George Cole, 920th MXG commander.
The MXG supported the 920th Rescue Wing in its 15 fly-away exercises around the globe last year as its members trained for Agile Combat Employment and combat search and rescue missions.
“The man hours and innovation we’ve invested allows us to engage in so many exercises and real-world missions around the world at a frequency and scale that nobody else is doing. We have had to be very strategic in how we deploy as a team to make sure that the right mix of skills are there, but can train our new technicians quickly and proficiently,” said Cole.
Typically, Air Force maintenance Airmen specialize in a single maintenance discipline, but the 920th MXG is pushing that expectation out.
“We deliberately train for cross-utilization so all the specialties are getting exposure and experience with basic inspection and servicing tasks. This means our multi-capable airmen can deploy with the fewest number of people possible so that we’re as light and lean as possible. Expanding their effectiveness and broadening their skill set is one area where we’ve been leaning forward and making progress a lot faster than other units.” said Cole.
The MXG enabled the 920th RQW to fly 3,200 hours in combat search and rescue, civil service, and NASA/SpaceX support mission.
“Our Airmen are leading the charge to prepare tactics, techniques, and procedures for the fight against peer adversaries, leading the rescue community, and leading the Air Force,” said Cole.
The Maintenance Effectiveness Award is separated into two levels: the Headquarters Air Force level and the Air Force Reserve Component level.
Within each level, there are four categories; small aircraft maintenance (25 to 300 authorized personnel), medium aircraft maintenance (301 to 999 authorized personnel), missile/munitions maintenance, and depot.
These awards recognize individuals and organizations within the maintenance community for their outstanding contributions to the success of the Air Force and DoD maintenance mission.
The MEA recognizes base-level military and civil service aircraft, munitions, and missile maintenance personnel who perform hands-on maintenance or manage a maintenance function.
CLICK HERE FOR BREVARD COUNTY NEWS
