Red Ball

It was another typical day in the Air Force a couple of years ago. I was assigned to flight line maintenance. As an aircraft structural maintenance technician, my job was to respond to aircraft maintenance issues requested over a land mobile radio by crew chiefs and other maintenance personnel. Majority of the maintenance requests were routine maintenance that had low to middle priority. That day, I got a "red ball" request which meant an aircraft is scheduled to take off within the hour but needs maintenance support before it can leave the tarmac. These calls are always interesting because you never know how severe the problem is. As I approached the aircraft, cargo personnel just wrapped up loading cargo onto the aircraft. The flight crew was on site preparing their pre-flight checks. I checked in with the crew and they informed me they had a bad nut plate on a lens panel. This was an easy job. I got all my tools from my flight line truck and went to work. All eyes were on me. The pilot, the crew, the cargo and all maintenance personnel on site were waiting on me to get the job done. I was suddenly in an intimidating and stressful situation but stayed focused and completed the job safely and successfully. The aircraft was able to take off on time to complete their mission. It was a great feeling knowing that I contributed to mission accomplishment. In the Air Force, every member plays a vital role and people are the most important asset.

Response to Inna's blog

I agree with Inna that the variety of information we've learned in class was interesting and informative. Watching "The Persuaders" and pointing out all the rhetoric used was educational and displayed how we can use rhetoric get our audience to react the way we want them to. I enjoyed all our guest speakers. I always find it interesting to listen to other people talk about what they do for a living.