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thedrifter
10-02-04, 06:26 AM
Marines save pilots' lives by doing the job right the first time
Submitted by: MCAS Miramar
Story Identification #: 2004927211124
Story by Lance Cpl. Skye Jones



MARINE CORPS AIR STATION MIRAMAR (Sept. 27, 2004) -- It is 2:00 a.m. and everything is calm up in the cockpit of an F/A-18 heading over the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly, a malfunction occurs, and the crew is forced to use parachutes to escape the damaged aircraft. They float safely to the water, deploy their inflatable raft and make emergency radio calls as they await rescue.

Countless pilots would not be alive today if not for the Marines of Aviation Life Support Systems, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 11, Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, doing their jobs correctly.

The three shops within ALSS check and prepare all the flight equipment before it reaches personnel in MAG-11's nine KC-130 and F/A-18 squadrons.

"This job requires a lot of responsibility," said Cpl. Mark Viloria, flight equipment technician, MALS-11. "The lives of these pilots depend on us doing our job correctly."

After completing a 10-week course in Pensacola, Fla., Marines at Miramar's ALSS shop start working in the life preserver shop.

The life preserver shop ensures all of the seat pans and life rafts are in operable condition.

"Once we get the gear from a unit's flight equipment shop, we check and pack it here for the pilots," explained Lance Cpl. Mary E. Labate, flight equipment technician, MALS-11, and Grove City, Pa., native.

Each seat pan lasts for 728 days and is packed with survival equipment such as a small life raft, flares, food, bagged water, a radio and liquid oxygen in the lid. A vacuum pump then compresses everything so it can fit inside the small seat pan.

The life rafts, on the other hand, are much larger than the ones included in the seat pan. Once the life preserver shop gets the rafts in, they inflate them for four hours to check for any leaks. If the pressure, measured in pounds per square inch, falls below a certain number, they will repair the rafts and start the process again to ensure that it is serviceable.

According to Sgt. Joshua Milsop, production control chief, ALSS shop, MALS-11, an ALSS Marine will either go to the parachute shop or oxygen equipment shop after he learns all of the basic knowledge in the life preserver shop.

At the parachute shop, the Marines inspect five different types of parachutes for any holes or tears. If the parachute needs to be fixed, they use the sewing machines to repair it. Once everything is clear, the parachute is squeezed into a small box for the pilots to use in an emergency.

"To compress the large parachute into such a compact space, we use a machine to press it eight times in one hour," explained Sgt. Robert Reyes, flight equipment technician, MALS-11. "Each parachute varies, however. For example, the A/P 28S-32 parachute takes two days to pack, the longest amount of time of all the parachutes," said the El Paso, Texas, native.

The third ALSS shop also helps the pilots stay safe by conducting a different type of test.

The oxygen equipment shop tests different oxygen regulators to ensure they will work at altitudes as high as 50,000 feet.

"These tests are vital," said Viloria, a Maui, Hawaii, native. "If we mess up a test and get the wrong reading, the regulators can easily malfunction and cost the pilots their lives."

The Marines at the oxygen regulator shop also risk their own lives every 231 days when they test the liquid oxygen, causing an explosion.

"We wear protective suits to protect us from the liquid oxygen, which can get down to minus 280 degrees," explained Viloria.

When the Marines test the regulators, they use a leak detection compound to test for leaks. They also use special oxygen tools to work with the regulators. If they borrowed a wrench saturated in grease from the parachute shop and used it on the regulators, it could contaminate the liquid oxygen and blow up.

Viloria explained if one drop of liquid oxygen spilled onto the floor from its vacuum chamber, it would expand approximately 862 times its size and explode, resulting in death for anyone near the detonation.

To prevent injury, the liquid oxygen is kept in the vacuum chamber until it is used for the pilots to breathe. The oxygen then passes through hoses, so it can reach the pilots in a safe, vaporized form.

All three of the ALSS shops work cautiously to ensure pilots are kept safe in the event of an emergency.

"The life preserver shop keeps the pilots afloat, the parachute shop keeps the pilots from hitting the ground and the oxygen regulator shop keeps the pilots breathing in safe air," said Reyes. "We do our job so the pilots can do theirs."

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/image1.nsf/Lookup/2004927211232/$file/040927-M-3762J-2720-ALSS-LR.jpg

Cpl. Juan Franco, flight equipment mechanic, Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron 11, attaches a portable breathing oxygen regulator to the breathing oxygen cylinder. The oxygen device will be used to give the pilots air in an event of an emergency. Photo by: Lance Cpl. Skye Jones

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/main5/D7A066F56B6BB09B85256F1D00068999?opendocument

Ellie