JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas -- Gilded in fog from the Pacific Ocean, Port Hueneme, Calif., houses the 346th Training Squadron where Airmen get their hands dirty while learning vehicle maintenance.
The name “U.S. Air Force” sparks images in one’s mind of airplanes soaring through the sky and fighter pilots executing high-speed maneuvers as they disappear through the clouds to combat the enemy. Rarely, do people think about what’s on the ground, keeping the planes in the air.
“Everything in the Air Force moves. All the vehicles that we use: fire trucks, cargo loaders, forklifts, and the vehicles that pull the aircraft, which we call tugs,” said Staff Sgt. Maurice Kelly, an advanced vehicle maintenance course instructor. “I believe maintenance is what keeps things going.”
Activated on February 13, the 346 TRS provides initial and supplemental training for future Vehicle Maintenance Airmen directly after graduating from U.S. Air and Space Force Basic Military Training. Vehicle Maintenance training began at Port Hueneme in September 1996, as Detachment 1 with the 344th Training Squadron under the 37th Training Wing. To this day, Port Hueneme is a joint military training school within the Department of Defense.
Upon arrival, new BMT graduates start in common core classes where, in their first 50 days, they learn the basics of vehicle maintenance alongside their U.S. Navy counterparts in a joint learning environment. Then, the students move on to Air Force-specific training on vital vehicles the service needs to keep the mission running smoothly.
Depending on what Air Force Specialty Code each Airman is assigned to, the length of their first course will vary. The initial courses are:
After Vehicle Maintenance Airmen are assigned to their duty stations, if they need supplemental training they can enroll in the four, in-house, advanced courses offered at Port Hueneme: vehicle powertrain diagnostics, chassis alignment, diesel maintenance and welding.
While instructors provide hands-on training to the students that sets them up for success in their burgeoning careers, select instructors also get the opportunity to leave Port Hueneme to travel to teach advanced vehicle maintenance courses to USAF partners, allies and sister services around the world.
In the past year, Kelly traveled to Yokota Air Base, Japan; San Jose, Calif.; Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and San Juan, Puerto Rico, to teach advanced vehicle maintenance on the Tunner 60k cargo loader (a highly mobile vehicle that can transport up to 60,000 pounds of cargo on and off aircraft at 23 miles per hour) and the Tunner 25k cargo loader. He travels almost every other week to a new location.
Kelly said he thoroughly enjoys teaching the advanced course, since he gets the opportunity to educate students on techniques in vehicle maintenance many have never heard of before. He strives to make the courses simultaneously informative and as fun as possible.
“When I'm explaining something to a student, there's a look on their face they get when they understand it, when they've been struggling with something,” Kelly said. “That, I think, is the most rewarding [moment] for me.”
Advanced instructors, like Kelly, make up the 346 TRS Mobile Training Teams. The MTTs consist of instructors with expertise in specialty vehicles. Each person goes to a different location to impart their specific knowledge in – aircraft fire trucks, refueling vehicles, cargo loaders, deicers and vehicle air conditioning – onto anyone from Japanese Navy members to Guardians at Pituffik Space Base, Greenland.
David Guthrie is the 346 TRS curriculum development manager. He designs all 19 courses the squadron offers to Vehicle Maintenance Airmen. After spending 30 years at Port Hueneme as an enlisted Airman and as a civilian employee, Guthrie knows the ins and outs of vehicle maintenance.
He spearheaded the welding course for the 346 TRS, writing all the class instructions and content. After the first class kicked off in 2018, welding quickly became the most popular course the squadron has to offer. In recent years, Guthrie has assisted in augmenting the welding course to include virtual reality headsets that simulate welding for students, so they can prepare their muscle memory before they try welding in real life.
Most recently, Guthrie designed a hybrid/electric vehicle course where students will learn how to troubleshoot an electric vehicle. The new class will go mobile with the MTTs within the next two years.
He constantly brainstorms new ideas to keep the courses innovative with cutting-edge content, just like he’s always searching for new ways to remodel his own personal cars. He compares creating the courses to how he transforms the engine in a vintage car.
“[It’s] rewarding. This is [just] like making something. I’m converting my 1990 Ford Bronco II, from a gas [vehicle], I took the engine and chassis all out, and I'm putting a Tesla motor in it with batteries. So, I'm in the middle of the chassis right now, it's on my table,” Guthrie said. “I just like making stuff — I get to be creative with it and then watch it be used by others.”
Kelly said he believes that vehicle maintainers save the Air Force millions of dollars with their expertise. Instead of contracting experts in the civilian world to fix their automobiles or replacing broken vehicles at the first sight of malfunctions, vehicle maintainers can fix them on the spot. For Kelly, teaching and training the next generation of Airmen to do that is integral to the Air Force mission.
Kelly comes from a long line of car enthusiasts where he quickly learned that fixing something brings him joy, especially machinery. He joined the Air Force to work in vehicle maintenance and said he did not want to do anything else. Now he gets to share that joy with people from different backgrounds.
“[I’ve always enjoyed] working with my hands. Now I enjoy teaching what I learned, and that’s a different kind of joy,” Kelly said.