Spangdahlem hosts CDDAR Training

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany -- It has been said it takes a thousand Airmen, with almost as many different skill sets, to get an aircraft into the air for a sortie; but most people don't know what it takes to lift an aircraft after it has crashed or become otherwise disabled.

There are Airmen here who know exactly what needs to be done if such an unfortunate event occurs.

The 52 Equipment Maintenance Squadron's Crash, Damaged, Disabled Aircraft Recovery Section specializes in tasks necessary to recover a crashed or disabled aircraft. This CDDAR section was recently validated by a Unit Compliance Inspection team as being the best in U.S. Air Forces in Europe, so it was no surprise when they were tasked to perform crash scenario training for all CDDAR sections in the entire major command.

Tech. Sgt. Nicholas Robertson, Spangdahlem CDDAR section chief, developed and instructed the training sessions, which occurred Oct. 13 and 14 and included a day of academic training followed by a day of several aircraft lift exercises to simulate various crashed and disabled aircraft scenarios.

"I was extremely excited to learn that many other organizations could benefit from our training program," Sergeant Robertson said. "It was a pleasure to teach them and to expand on our own knowledge base from their experiences."

There was an overwhelming interest in this training, which was apparent by the level of participation; along with training Spangdahlem's newly assigned Airmen, 14 personnel from seven installations across the command attended.

The overarching goals of the training were to train new team chiefs, as well as to help standardize CDDAR programs across the command. All individuals involved were trained and qualified on various tasks such as towing an aircraft with a blown tire or performing a sling lift to raise an aircraft off the ground in the event the landing gear collapsed upon landing. All tasks were trained in a manner in order to prevent secondary damage to aircraft.

"You can only learn so much by reading technical orders," said Staff Sgt. Isaac Iberra, 65th Operations Support Squadron, Lajes Field, Azores. "You learn much more by actually performing the task at hand, which for us was to lift a damaged aircraft."

However, the event wasn't just about task training, but learning from other people's experiences, as well.

Senior Master Sgt. Mark Kanitz, 31st Maintenance Squadron, Aviano Air Base, Italy, attended the training to not only become qualified as a team chief, but to also to "look at other CDDAR programs across the command to better improve Aviano's operation."

The newly gained knowledge imparted on the trainees was not just for aircraft emergencies, but also valuable for day-to-day operations, at home station and deployed locations.

"While no one wants to be required to use this knowledge in a real-world scenario, we must be prepared to do so," said Staff Sgt. Robert Abbey, 65th OSS.