An official website of the United States government
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Home : News : Article View
NEWS | Feb. 24, 2015

Support and Maintenance Teams keep North Carolina Army Guard Apaches flying

By Army Capt. Dave Chance and Army Pfc. Kelly L. Widner 449th Theater Aviation Brigade

MORRISVILLE, N.C. – When it comes to aviation, the pilots are often thought of first. But, keeping the AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters of the North Carolina Army National Guard's 1st Battalion, 130th Aviation Regiment in the air and mission ready requires a cadre of dedicated Soldiers on the ground as well. On a recent sunny and cold Saturday morning, the battalion's flight facility, located adjacent to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, was a hive of activity as Soldiers worked to keep the Apaches flight ready.

Overlooking the flight line from the facility's second floor, Army Sgt. Thomas Mullaney stood in the center of the battalion's hub for checking in pilots and monitoring their flights. As he rushed between phone calls, other Soldiers in his section assisted more than 20 pilots with submitting flight plans and risk assessments as they prepared for nighttime training flights. A dozen big-screen TVs lined the walls displaying information about the day's operations, including schedules, pilot training status and weather forecasts.

Mullaney, a flight operations specialist—known as a "15 Papa" by his military occupational specialty code— has his finger on the proverbial pulse of the battalion's aviators.

"The flight operations specialist entails everything from flight tracking and talking to (pilots) over radios, all the way down to maintaining flight records, flight scheduling and flight physicals," Mullaney said. "As the pilots come in, they'll request when they're ready to get their flight bag and keys ... we'll update their information with their route of flight, and record the flight's briefer and final approval."

While the facility's second floor is focused on flight plans, accountability and individual crew member records, the open hangar underneath is manned by a team of Soldiers turning wrenches, evaluating equipment, and making sure the Apaches stay in top condition.

One of those Soldiers is Army Staff Sgt. Chang Vang, an airframe mechanic and 12-year Army veteran, who has spent the past six years with the unit. Vang and his team are trained to work on a variety of military aircraft, including Apaches, UH-60 Black Hawks and UH-72 Lakotas.

"An airframe is an airframe," Vang said, walking between Apaches while checking their metal fuselages. "We work on pretty much any airframe. We repair and fabricate anything down to the littlest screws (and) we deal with pretty much the whole structural aspect of an aircraft."

Airframe mechanics focus primarily on the panels that make up an aircraft's body and their shop on the edge of the hangar includes large tools used to cut and shape the racks of stock metal lined up against the wall.

"We're not the aircraft maintainers," Vang said, referring the attack helicopter repairers who handle the day-to-day aspects of keeping the aircraft flight ready, "but we're the backbone of the maintainers. When they find an issue, they get us. If a panel doesn't lock closed properly, we come out and assess and see what we can do, take something off, replace it or just modify it."

That means being able to find work-around solutions while thinking on the go.

"Even if we don't have the actual parts, we have to find ways to repair an airframe anyway," Vang said, pointing out that their supply section can only stock so many items at a time. "If they don't have it, then we have to be Johnny-on-the-spot. We break out all our tools and figure out how to repair it as fast as we can."

That ability to find solutions on the fly became especially needed during Vang's 2009 deployment to Iraq. Vang said his team didn't have the fully-stocked tool shop he works out of at home station in Morrisville.

"We had our toolbox, but it was very limited," he said. "I once had to fix a Black Hawk stabilator (part of the aircraft's tail) that's ribbed, but didn't have any ribbed metal. I had to take a broom handle and beat the metal into shape. That's about one of the most creative things I've seen so far."

Vang is nearly always on the move while in the shop, dropping under an Apache to bang on its bottom panels, or openning access panels and checking small compartments he's had repair.

"When I feel limber enough, I'll crawl up in [the rear of the aircraft] and work upside down," he said. "You really can't be a big person in this job."

The airframe mechanics have a good relationship with the aircraft pilots, said Vang, noting the pilots often show they appreciate and respect the airframe mechanics' fast work in keeping the aircraft in the air.

"A lot of the pilots we have here in the (unit) are real people, people," he said. "They talk to you and they appreciate what you do."

That symbiotic relationship means the pilots can focus on their task at hand while in the air.

"Flying is the easy part of the job that we do," said Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Steven Pratt, an Apache helicopter pilot with the unit. "The hardest part is doing the mission planning and performance planning for the aircraft."

That's where Vang, Mullaney and their teams come in.

"[When we're in the air] we have a mission and a specific task that we have to do," Pratt said. "[On the ground] someone has to be looking over where we're going, what we plan to do and if it's safe to operate the aircraft in that environment."

Vang said being part of a close knit and mission-focused unit like 1st Bn., 130th Avn. Regt. makes it easy to feel part of the team.

While Vang and his teammates are capable of repairing the bodies of an aircraft, others keep the the electronic systems of the aircraft ready to go.

For Army Sgt. Bruce Werthan, when he enlisted in 2006 the decision to become an Apache armament-electrical-avionic systems repairer was an easy one — it "had the coolest sounding title," said Werthen, adding that it also sounded interesting and engaging.

"Working on armament systems just sounded fun to me," he said. "It was a bit more difficult than I realized, but everything is in the electronic manuals and wiring diagrams. And, there are plenty of Soldiers around here who know a lot more than I do and we help each other out."

During live-fire training exercises, Werthan and the repairers and refuelers also operate as a pit crew of sorts managing forward arming and refueling points in the field.

"We load rockets, we load ammo, and if they're shooting Hellfire [missiles], we'll load Hellfires," Werthan said. "And if there's any problem…we can fix quickly, like a pilot having trouble with their helmet or monocle, we'll deal with that there. We do spot checks like that on the (arming and refueling) pad."

The focus is on simply getting the job done and keeping the pilots flying.

"[Pilots] depend on us, but you don't really hear about us too much. We're not the headline or anything like that, but we get the job done," he said.

When the pilots are flying, but not using the aircraft weapon systems, Werthan said he will help launch and recover flights and address routine maintenance issues like cleaning weapons and attaching equipment.

"Our time to shine is really during gunnery annual training," Werthan said. "That's when the aircraft are actually going up and shooting."

Being able to work on the aircraft's electronic systems is rewarding for the challenge it presents, Werthan said.

"I'm not super mechanically inclined – I'm not like an engineer or anything – so it's a good challenge whenever I come in and get to work on the aircraft," he said. "Plus, it's really cool."

The job is not only rewarding, but Werthen said it's also given him some great stories to share with family and friends.

"There's always a different story to tell – always something fun," he said. "I'll tell them that I've worked on a really cool helicopter. They probably think the stories all sound the same, but to me there's always something new."

 

 

Related Articles
U.S. Soldiers with the Army National Guard speak with D.C. locals while patrolling Metro Center Aug 26, 2025. About 2,000 National Guard members are supporting the D.C. Safe and Beautiful mission providing critical support to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department in ensuring the safety of all who live, work, and visit the District.
Guard Members From Six States, D.C. on Duty in Washington in Support of Local, Fed Authorities
By Sgt. 1st Class Jon Soucy, | Aug. 29, 2025
WASHINGTON – More than 2,000 National Guard Soldiers and Airmen from six states and the District of Columbia are on duty in Washington as part of Joint Task Force – District of Columbia in support of local and federal...

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, Maj. Gen. Russel Honore, Task Force Katrina commander, and Brig. Gen. John Basilica, 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team commander, talk to news media during the aftermath of Hurricane Rita on Sep. 29, 2005. Basilica was appointed commander of Task Force Pelican, responsible for coordinating National Guard hurricane response efforts across the State. The task force included tens of thousands of National Guard Soldiers from Louisiana and other states.
Louisiana Guard’s Tiger Brigade Marks 20th Anniversary of Redeployment and Hurricane Response
By Rhett Breerwood, | Aug. 29, 2025
NEW ORLEANS – This fall, the Louisiana National Guard’s 256th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, known as the Tiger Brigade, commemorates the 20th anniversary of its redeployment from Iraq in September 2005, coinciding with the...

Alaska Air National Guard HH-60G Pave Hawk aviators and Guardian Angels, assigned to the 210th and 212th Rescue Squadrons, respectively, conduct a hoist rescue demonstration while participating in a multi-agency hoist symposium at Bryant Army Airfield on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 22, 2025. The symposium, hosted by Alaska Army National Guard aviators assigned to Golf Company, 2-211th General Support Aviation Battalion, included U.S. Coast Guard crews assigned to Sector Western Alaska and U.S. Arctic out of Air Stations Kodiak and Sitka, Alaska Air National Guardsmen with the 176th Wing rescue squadrons, U.S. Army aviators from Fort Wainwright’s 1-52nd General Support Aviation Battalion, Alaska State Troopers, and civilian search and rescue professional volunteers from the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group. The collaborative training drew on the participants’ varied backgrounds, experiences, and practices, to enhance hoist proficiency and collective readiness when conducting life-saving search and rescue missions in Alaska’s vast and austere terrain. (Alaska Army National Guard photo by Alejandro Peña)
Alaska Air Guard Conducts Multiple Hoist Rescues of Stranded Rafters on Kichatna River
By Staff Sgt. Seth LaCount, | Aug. 29, 2025
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — Alaska Air National Guard members with the 176th Wing rescued three rafters Aug. 28 after their raft flipped over on the Kichatna River.The Alaska Rescue Coordination Center opened...