Aircraft Weapons Division: the behind-the-scenes shop critical for testing success
With the vast array of military-type testing at U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground (YPG) hundreds of those tests are conducted within an aircraft armed with munitions to assist in protecting American troops and taking out any adversary.
While pilots and gunners sit at the forefront of those tests, there’s a small shop that assists throughout the entire process, ensuring that each aircraft is armed with the proper ammunition and handled through a safe and secure process – and without the personnel from aircraft weapons, the test may not be possible.
“In a field like we are [aircraft weapons], running ammunitions, helicopters, lasers, we have inherently dangerous jobs,” said David Gresham, the section chief for Aircraft Weapons. “It’s very much rely on your fellow worker type of job.”
And that they do. The team is made up of eight personnel, smaller than many shops, and while only some have a military background, everyone brings something to the table.
“There are so many things that we do and the purpose of why they are testing it and what they are doing just varies,” said Charlie Saltz, a gun crew lead that’s been on the team for the last four years. “A lot of the times we are a behind-the-scenes kind of shop, you hardly see us.”
Whether it is shooting 30mm rounds out of an AH-64E Apache helicopter, launching domesticated 2.75 rockets, conducting Joint Air to Ground Missile tests, aircraft weapons play a role in either loading, unloading, or assisting with foreign objects or debris. In short, anything that is fired from an aircraft during a test at YPG involves the aircraft weapons team to ensure safety and reliability.
Jim Schremp, an aircraft technician at YPG since 1998, explained how no aircraft leaves Laguna Airfield with live ammunition loaded.
“They have to come back here [secure location] and we [aircraft weapons team] have to check it to make sure there is no rounds that go back to Laguna,” Schremp said that’s a term the team coined as Winchester.
“When we get assigned to a test, we handle all of the ordinance and do the loading and unloading, and we follow all the procedures for safety and handling,” said Johnny Martinez, an aircraft weapons technician.
Those safety procedures are known as SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) and are the guidelines for every test.
“We live and breathe SOP’s,” stressed Gresham.
With safety being the number one priority while working with aircraft ammunitions during any kind of test, aircraft weapons technician – Jose Ochoa – said that’s what aircrafts weapons is known for and one aspect that he loves within the shop.
“We all look out for each other, it is more than just putting a bullet in the chamber,” Ochoa said. And he has seen that first-hand being one of the few who joined the team without a military background.
“I am constantly learning, even now nine years later, especially with the crew that we have that are all former military. They all bring something to the table,” he added.
While Daniel Miranda is former military, he recognizes how those who are and aren’t can combine ideas for a successful mission.
“We gather ideas or things from what this person has seen or maybe this person hasn’t seen it and we put it all together and use it as one,” Miranda shared having spent four years with the team.
Aircraft weapons technician Joshua Parker is the newest to join the team yet brings a ton of experience having been in the Marine Corps and working in aviation ordinance loading rounds on to F35 aircrafts.
Doing what needs to get done in the safest manner along with assisting one another is what they strive for, according to Guillermo Torres, another aircraft weapons technician. But the payoff is even greater he said.
“Being a veteran and a part of the YPG weapons department and testing procedures makes me feel like I give my one percent back now that I am not an active-duty member,” shared Torres.
And that feeling resonates throughout the crew.
“To be able to help the troops and to see some of the things that come out and all the different capabilities to be able to keep the Soldier safe from afar is amazing,” said Saltz. “Just to have my hand in it I feel it’s a privilege for me and an honor to do it for them.”
Coming from all different backgrounds, working together sometimes around the clock and managing to keep the aircrafts, pilots and those working on the range safe, the aircraft weapons team couldn’t be summed up better than, “We are kind of like the eyes and the ears of the aviation division,” said Schremp.