Battery shop energizes planes

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Patrick Harrower
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  For many maintainers on the flightline at Travis, there are many duties and responsibilities. For the 60th Maintenance Squadron electrical and environmental shop those responsibilities extend to servicing and repairing the batteries on C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III aircraft.

To maintain the batteries, the 60th MXS has a satellite work center for electricians to perform their duties.

"All of the aircraft require functional batteries that will work at all times under any conditions," said Airman 1st Class Jordan Lavallee, 60th MXS electrical and environmental systems specialist. "The batteries serve as a power source for aircraft starting as well as any emergency system operation. Case in point, planes can't fly if they don't have batteries."

With the batteries being critical to not only the flying status, but also to the safety of the aircraft, there is a heightened stress on safety in the battery shop.

"It can be stressful at times because other people's lives depend on the quality of maintenance you do," said Senior Airman Matthew Banach, 60th MXS electrical and environmental systems specialist. "You have to make sure everything works before you say it's good to fly."

Another element of safety can be the physical dangers of the batteries. The technicians encounter a variety of hazards in the shop such as high voltages, liquid oxygen, electrolyte, high pressure cylinders and corrosive, toxic and flammable chemicals.

With so many dangers and precautions to be observed, the technicians must take special care to follow the technical orders, but they still need to be flexible with their abilities.

"Wiring diagrams can be confusing," Banach said. "Sometimes a nut or screw might be stripped making it extremely hard to remove. Sometimes you hardly have any room to turn a wrench or screwdriver."

With many other shops and aircrew depending on the battery shop to do its job safely, quickly and accurately, there is a great sense of pride and teamwork when they perform.

"We all work together to complete the mission, we would not be able to achieve our goal without any of the other shops," said Airman 1st Class Noel Carballo, 60th MXS electrical and environmental systems specialist. "The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the C-5 and C-17 taking off day after day and knowing that you were a large part in making this happen."