Munitions production course gives leaders insight

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tong Duong
  • Thunderbolt staff writer
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. --  Luke Air Force Base and local leaders had the opportunity April 16 to build bombs as a way to better understand the inner workings of a munitions facility here. 

The 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron invited Brig. Gen. Kurt Neubauer, 56th Fighter Wing commander, other Luke leaders and honorary commanders to the EMS immersion day to show what ammo personnel do and how they support the mission. 

"We are in the business of putting warheads on foreheads and getting rid of bad guys," said Capt. Kurt Umlauf, 56th EMS Munitions Flight commander. "We need weapons to do that. There are many pieces to the process of getting weapons to the right place at the right time and hurting only the right person." 

Captain Umlauf briefed the group on how Airmen assemble the many types of munitions used by F-16 Fighting Falcon student pilots, and the level of effort required to produce and deliver safe, reliable and correct munitions to the flightline in support of flying operations. 

"We provided them with a mission orientation of what we do, some concepts and tools that we use to produce and protect weapons, as well as a crash course on explosives safety," Captain Umlauf said. "As a class project, they built inert guided bomb unit-38s and saw how 20 mm rounds (for the F-16 cannon) are inspected and processed." 

According to Captain Umlauf, the importance of the course was to expand the knowledge of base and local leaders to the intricate process it takes to produce a weapon and the resources required. 

"There are a myriad of steps that go into producing and delivering a bomb beyond the components that comprise the bomb itself," Captain Umlauf said. "We wanted to show them the synergy it takes to get the weapon from the bomb dump to the flightline." 

The 56th EMS honorary commanders enjoyed the hands-on activities and were eager to spread the word. 

"It's a lot of fun for us to come out and see how it's done and take the experiences back to our own areas to tell people what's going on besides the mission of jets flying," said Mike Valenza, RBF Consulting, and 56th EMS honorary commander. "It's nice to see the support structures such as the maintenance group, because those guys work as hard as the pilots." 

Luke trains more than 400 pilots annually but a lesser-known fact is that student pilots training at Luke in fiscal year 2008 dropped more than 23,000 bombs in support of the wing's flying mission.