European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 5, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                August 1985 the stars and stripes Page 7 photo by red grand Crew chief Robin dowdy guides Matt Blacks f15 Eagle out of its shelter at Camp new and on its Way to another his Job is making sick eagles Well by Joe Mapother Bremerhaven Bureau Camp new Netherlands senior airman Tom Martin takes off at a fast Trot when the Call comes stopping Only to grab a set of ear he is about to perform Quick surgery on an ailing f15 Eagle Jet engine whose whine exceeds the Decibel Levels of even a Rock n rollers wildest night a hot blast of air greets Martin As he trots Down the Concrete enclosed Den where the f15 huddling for a minute with the ground Martin ducks under the Wing toward the left engine of the screaming Eagle and pops open doors on the belly of the Pound thrust class Pratt and Whitney in the 1st Mike writes Fry has his Chin resting on his Palm in an expression of patient within Martin has an idea of what the prob Lem is an Over serviced Amad essentially an overfilled he drains some and the engine is cranked up to 80 percent air moisture vortexes that look like Minia Ture White tornadoes Are sucked into the intakes of the twin and the noise the Jet shakes As the Power is brought Martin is satisfied he has found the problem and signals the of to the whole process has taken less than 10 Twenty seven Good to Martin tells staff Dennis Griffin Back in the wooden Shack from where he so recently Good to Griffin Martin was out on a yellow Ball Call doing an on thespot repair Job As part of base readiness the problem was in the Martin is a Jet engine me his duty station bears Little resemblance to the operations Center where the fighter pilots spend most of their time on the there Are no carpets on the red 150pound toolboxes Are parked underneath the table atop which the Coffee maker the 23yearold whose Home is fires up one of his frequent cigarettes and it is a rare Opportunity for a smoker on the flight i like to work flight says i  want to work you know what sort of thing is going to out Here the Job is never the the Jet engine and m like to work flip i  want t i i it i t Matt the Are separated by just a few years in when they run across each other on the flight the separation is about seven feet Black up in the cockpit and Martin poking around underneath the what they share in common is a preoccupation with the million supersonic fighting machine the for it Means skimming a technical Man Ual while holding his baby daughter in the for meeting with his coworkers while off duty More often than not Means one thing shop that what we know about engines and that the Only thing we talk sometimes its pretty for said you go to a and nobody knows what you Are talking f15 pilots Wear a and Blue Patch with the National Bird in the the logo Eagle Martins Patch is identical except for the colors White and Khaki Green and the logo Eagle a to is somebody who tells him what is wrong with the sometimes the new Guys give you a lot of information that you really dont need and they dont Tell you what the problem on pilots in general some pilots Are really some Are Stone it might depend on the Type of Day they the Breeze coming in through the open door of the mechanics Shack carries the doors of Jet engine Hydraulic Oil and a Host of other lubricants and there is a Filmon the top of the Coffee in the Glass pot warming on the table Coffee hustled earlier that morning from the weapons system technicians Shack across the youve always got an Oil spot on your says Martin with a sidelong glance at his air Force a pair of boots rot  Only last a Martin the ones he is wearing have held up a Good bit longer than one look is enough to see they will never take a the airman is part of a five person Crew on the Day what we try to do on Day shift is try to turn the quickest Jet we can said that Means going to the Job expected to take the least amount of if an engine problem crops up elsewhere that potentially can be fixed the Crew drops what it is doing and goes its kind of like taking a on Day tour of Paris without the Sce Nery and Martin has already calculated this will be another no lunch there Are jobs to be started if see Mechanic on Page 9