Corporal Jeremy Simms

Semper Fidelis

Semper Fidelis is the motto of the United States Marine Corps and translates from the Latin as "always faithful." Aviation maintenance professionals are known to be faithful to duty, but for some aviation maintenance professionals, duty has a significant meaning.

Meet Corporal Jeremy Simms, a CH-53E mechanic in the United States Marine Corps. The 22-year-old native of Gaithersburg, Maryland joined the Marine Corps at age 18 seeking personal challenge. He said he was looking for direction, discipline, and a change from the everyday "plain brown bag" life, as he put it.

Simms signed on the dotted line with a career in aviation maintenance in mind and with a military mindset that included a new nomenclature that seemed to have an acronym for everything.

"I joined the Marine Corps knowing that I wanted to be involved in aviation. I signed a five-year contract, guaranteed to be involved in aviation, with the option to be a mechanic. After boot camp and combat training, I spent a few months as an AMAT (aviation marine awaiting training) building T64-ge-416, 416A, and 419 engines at MALS-29, the Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron."

In July 2000, he became designated as a CH-53E mechanic. After graduating at the top of his aviation mechanic class, he was assigned to HMT-302. HMT stands for Marine Helicopter Training and 302 is the squadron number.

He was then offered the opportunity to transfer to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron HMH-464.

"I was with 464 for about two and a half years and deployed with them last year to Iraq for Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom," said Simms. He was transferred once again to an air combat element of the 24th MEU (Marine Expeditionary Unit), where he serves as a flight line work center supervisor, a collateral duty inspector, a plane captain, and an aerial observer.

So what's life like supporting American forces in Iraq? "We were operating at a very high operational tempo and there was a huge demand for the type, model, and series helicopter I work on," said Simms. "We had to keep our planes in the best condition possible, and if there were any downing discrepancies, we had to get them fixed as quickly as possible."

For Simms, it's hard to talk about a day in the life of an aviation mechanic supporting Marine Corps operations without noting a condition that everyone must deal with in Iraq: the weather. Simms described the conditions as extreme, getting as hot as 120+ degrees in the daytime and dropping to 75 to 80 degrees at night. "Sandstorms occurred every other day," he said.

Working in aviation maintenance has its own concerns and threats. Simms believes that tool control, FOD (foreign object damage) prevention, and proper training are some of the most important attributes in aviation maintenance.

He also believes that having a second person inspect the work being done is important. "In the Marine Corps, most training is on the job," he said. "It's important to teach less experienced personnel the proper ways to perform a task and reinforce the values and safety principles in them while you are conducting your training."

His experience includes servicing aircraft going to and coming in from battle. "Many zones or areas our missions were flown into were extremely sandy and dusty, and many runways we landed on were covered in bomb craters," said Simms. This environment created extra work, conditional inspections, preventative maintenance, and troubleshooting discrepancies to get the aircraft back out to complete its mission. "It was very important that everyone had their head in the game, and kept an eye on each other to ensure nobody tried to cut any corners or take unsafe shortcuts during a job," he said.

Aviation mechanics in the U.S. Marine Corps are expected to maintain their professional standing as well as other military standards. Simms's unit runs the same physical fitness test semi-annually as any other member of the Marine Corps does. In addition, the unit trains with firearms and performs other battle-ready exercises.

"Just like any other Marine, every member of the air wing spends a week at the rifle range, we qualify in the gas chamber, we have to qualify with our pistols annually, and perform many other duties," he said.

For Corporal Jeremy Simms, life as an aviation mechanic is rigorous, challenging and different than a civilian aviation maintenance job. But Simms's experience contains camaraderie and esprit de corps not often associated with aviation maintenance jobs. "The Marine Corps offered opportunity to travel, and they taught me not only job skills, but invaluable leadership qualities and work ethics. I now have a group of friends who are more like brothers to me than co-workers."--By Jim Romeo