AMMO (U.S. Air Force)

:"Ammo is also a commonly used abbreviation for ammunition."

The Munitions Systems Specialist career field (AFSC 2W0X1, previously 461X0), commonly referred to as AMMO, is the munitions and weapons branch of the U.S. Air Force.

Career Field Description

AMMO is responsible for maintaining the US Air Force's entire munitions stockpile. Various duties include shipping and receiving, building, testing, operating, protecting, inspecting, storing and performing maintenance on all types of conventional munition systems, and handling nuclear weapons. AMMO personnel also operate and maintain a wide variety of equipment and electronic gear, from convert|40|ft|m|0|sing=on tractor-trailer combination vehicles and all-terrain 10,000 pound forklifts, to small arms weapons, to AGM-65 guidance testing units and computer databases. Upon graduation from Air Force Basic Military Training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, Airmen assigned to the field attend an 8-week tech school at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. Upon graduation from tech school, the new AMMO apprentice is sent to their assigned duty station.

Isolation and Culture

Due to safety concerns with the possibility of explosives accidentally cooking off and damaging a large portion of a base, the Munitions Storage Area (or "Bomb Dump" as it is commonly called) is usually isolated or barricaded from the rest of base. At some bases, such as RAF Welford in United Kingdom, the ride to work can take as long as fifty minutes, compared to a 4 or 5 minute commute for people in most other career fields.

pecific Jobs

AMMO has at least nine distinct working areas within the career field.

Equipment Maintenance

"Trailer Maintenance", or "TM", is hub of all maintenance for the job-specific trailer equipment that is unique to AMMO. Maintenance and Inspections are performed on Munitions Material Handling Equipment (MMHE) such as the MHU-141, MHU-110, LALS, UALS, and the newer MHU-226 bomb trailers.

Precision Guided Munitions

"Missile Shop", or "Precision Guided Munitions" is responsible for the testing and maintenance of all conventional air-to-air munitions used on aircraft and all air-to-ground missiles. In some cases PGM will take responsibility for guided air-to-ground bombs as well.

Flightline Delivery

"Line-D" drivers are dispatched by Munitions Control and are responsible for the safe and expedient handling and delivery of munitions from the bomb dump, or other storage locations, to aircraft. Drivers are held responsible for the accounting of their equipment and munitions movements via daily reconciliation, or "recon", which is an accounting of all these movements which is verified three ways between the recipient of each delivery, Munitions Control, and the Line-D driver, with a zero percent discrepancy tolerance.

Conventional Maintenance

"CM", is responsible for the construction, maintenance, and testing of all conventional air-to-ground munitions used on aircraft, ranging from chaff and flares to cannon ammunition and guided and unguided bombs.

Munitions Control

"Control" can be thought of as the nerve center of the bomb dump. Control tracks work crews, coordinates requirements, acts as a liaison for outside agencies, develops war plans, provides oversight for safety and security, and ensures the daily reconciliation of all munitions and related equipment against established inventories. Due to the high turnover rate of controllers, it is very difficult to accurately coordinate munition plans with a crew of controllers who are not trained in the job they are performing.

torage and Handling

"Storage" is responsible for storing and breaking out munitions required by CM and Inspection, and is also responsible for the maintenance of the munitions storage facilities, usually called "igloos", "magazines", or revetments ("revvies"). Storage is also used to transport munitions over public right-of-ways to transfer munitions between different storage or shipping and receiving locations. Storage troops operate the majority of the heavier equipment found in the bomb dump, including "18 wheelers", heavy-rated forklifts, and cranes. Storage troops can be thought of as the arteries of AMMO. Due to the high turnover rate of controllers, it is very difficult to accurately coordinate munition plans with a crew of controllers who are not trained in the job they are performing.

Inspection

All munitions items at various times need to be inspected for safety and compliance with technical instructions. Specially trained NCOs and Airmen called Munitions Inspectors accomplish this. Inspectors attend Inspector School, which lasts approximately 3 weeks and is usually conducted at the AMMO Schoolhouse, located at Sheppard AFB, Texas.

Munitions Operations

"Operations" is responsible for the accountability and logistics for the entire munitions stockpile. If AMMO is the "Black Sheep" of the Air Force, Munitions Operations was at one time considered the sheep's red-headed stepchild. Those who worked in this area used to be classified under the 645X0A Supply career field, rather than the 461X0 Maintenance career field the rest of AMMO was under. Personnel attended technical school at Lowery AFB, Colorado and arrived at their first base to find themselves standing part-way between the Base Supply world and the world of AMMO. Before the early 1990s, while it was still a part of Supply, the shop was referred to as "AFK" (a Supply acronym designating munitions as the Air Force "K" account, as used in the automated Standard Base Supply System (SBSS)). When 645X0A left the Supply career field to merge with 461X0, the accountability for munitions needed to be separated from SBSS. The account code was changed to "AFV" to reflect accountability under a new, AMMO-specific system: the Combat Ammunition System, or "CAS." This new acronym never really caught on as a nick-name the way AFK did and as the new 2W0X1 career field became homogenized, the shop became more prominently known as either "Accountability" or "Munitions Ops", though it is still referred to as "AFK" by a few older airmen.

Other specialized shops

Some shops only exist at one base, or a limited number of bases, and other shops are often combined, depending on the mission of the given base. Examples of such shops are as follows:

TARRP - "Tactical Airmunition Rapid Response Package." 18 MUNS, Kadena AB, Japan, implements TARRP. This shop is responsible for keeping bombs and missiles loaded on aircraft pallets ready to be deployed at a moment's notice. The TARRP arsenal consists of munitions including, but not limited to, MK82s, MK84s, BLU109s, AGM-65s, AIM-9s, and AIM-120s.

STAMP - "Standard Air Munitions Package." 649 MUNS, Hill AFB, Utah and 651 MUNS, Lackland AFB, TX (Medina annex) implement STAMP. Similar to TARRP with the exception that the bombs and missiles are not already loaded onto aircraft pallets.

At other bases, Line-D and TM, CM and PGM, and even Control and AFK are combined into one shop, and other munitions organizations include nuclear weapons handling and storage.

hakey the Pig

Shakey the Pig is the mascot of the 36th Air Base Wing's Munitions Squadron. Just within the gate of the bomb dump of Andersen AFB, a pig poke contains a living, wild boar that has become the bomb dump's "official" pet. Shakey has a "pig house" in the shape of a munitions igloo, as well as a small pond. Shakey has gone through numerous "upgrades"- as one pig dies, another wild boar piglet is caught in the wilds of the bomb dump's jungle and adopted as the next "Shakey". As late as December, 1994, the bomb dump at Andersen AFB was on version "Shakey the 5th", and in November, 2006, the bomb dump at Andersen AFB was on version "Shakey the 8th." As the official mascot, Shakey is well taken care of and given medical and dental care as needed.

Shakey appears to be the only living, sanctioned (unit funds pay for food and health care) mascot of any current unit in the U.S. Air Force.

An article on Shakey in Airman Magazine, an official publication of the U. S. Air Force, can be read here: [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBP/is_11_46/ai_94206945 The Secret Life of Shakey the Pig - Airman's World | Airman | Find Articles at BNET ] ]

Duty Stations

Active Duty, Reserve, and Air National Guard AMMO personnel can be assigned any of a large number of military bases. Air Force bases that host non-combat aircraft or no aircraft such as Randolph AFB, TX and Vance AFB, OK have their Ammo mission accomplished by Air Force civil service personnel who are primarily made up of retired or prior service AMMO troops. Some past and present AMMO bases include:

(Note: This list may not be all-inclusive)

United States

* Andersen AFB, Guam;
* Barksdale AFB, Louisiana;
* Beale AFB, California (Home of AFCOMAC);
* Bolling AFB, Washington, DC;
* Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona;
* Dyess AFB, Texas;
* Edwards AFB, California;
* Eglin AFB, Florida;
* Elmendorf AFB, Alaska;
* Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota;
* Eielson AFB, Alaska;
* Fairchild AFB, Washington;
* F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming;
* Gowen Field ANGB, Boise Airport, Boise, Idaho;
* Hickam AFB, Hawaii;
* Hill AFB, Utah;
* Holloman AFB, New Mexico;
* Homestead ARB, Florida;
* Keesler AFB, Mississippi;
* Lackland AFB, Texas;
* Langley AFB, Virginia;
* Luke AFB, Arizona;
* Little Rock AFB, Arkansas;
* Lowry AFB, Colorado (Technical School for AFSC 461X0/2W0X1. Closed as of September, 1993);
* Malmstrom AFB, Montana;
* Mather AFB, California (Closed as of October 1, 1993);
* McChord AFB, Washington;
* McClellan AFB, California (Closed as of July 13, 2001);
* Medina Annex - Lackland/Kelly AFB, Texas;
* Mountain Home AFB, Idaho;
* Minot AFB, North Dakota;
* Moody AFB, Georgia;
* Nellis AFB, Nevada;
* Offutt AFB, Nebraska;
* Pope AFB, North Carolina;
* Reno ANGB, Nevada;
* Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina;
* Shaw AFB, South Carolina;
* Sheppard AFB, Texas;
* Travis AFB, California;
* Tyndall AFB, Florida;
* Wheeler AFB, Hawaii (Transferred to U.S. Army November 1, 1991);
* Whiteman AFB, Missouri;
* Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio;
* Hancock Field ANGB, New York;

Asia

* Kunsan AB, South Korea;
* Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan;
* Misawa AB, Japan;
* Osan AB, South Korea;
* Yokota AB, Japan;
* Danang AB, Vietnam;
* Korat AB, Thailand;

Middle East

* Al Karj, Saudi Arabia;
* Al Udeid, Qatar;
* Dhahran, Saudi Arabia (Khobar Towers - Closed as of 1996);

Europe

* Araxos, Greece;
* Aviano AB, Italy;
* Camp Darby, Italy;
* Hahn Air Base, Germany; (Closed in mid-90's)
* Incirlik, Turkey;
* Morbach (Wenigerath) AMMO Storage Area Morbach, Germany;(Closed in 1995)
* Naval Air Station Keflavik, Iceland; (Closed as of September, 2006)
* Ramstein AB, Germany;
* RAF Welford, England;
* RAF Lakenheath, England;
* RAF Mildenhall, England;
* Rhein-Main AB, Germany; (Closed as of December, 2005)
* Spangdahlem AB, Germany;
* Lajes AB, The Azores of Portugal

External links

* [http://www.af.mil/sites/ List of US Air Force bases]
* http://www.ammotroops.com
* http://www.usafammo.com
* http://www.ammosoftball.net

References