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PMEL: Local precision, nationwide mission

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher Maldonado
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  The old cartoon character “Fat Albert” can mean different things to different people depending on what generation one belongs to. Older generations might call him “comedian” while newer generations might think of him as “classic.” To a select group of U.S. Air Force Airmen, however, he is simply known as “customer.”

With partners ranging across 190 work centers and Air Combat Command sites, the 20th Component Maintenance Squadron precision measurement equipment laboratory flight at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. serves customers from a myriad of locations. Whether it’s adjusting weaponry systems and hardware for space and ground-bound assets in support of the Air Force mission, or calibrating, tuning and maintaining various pieces of equipment using “metrology,” or “the study of measurements,” the 20th CMS’ PMEL flight’s mission is as diverse as its customer base.

One of these customers is the titan known as Fat Albert, a Tethered Aerostat Radar System that looks very much like a blimp. It is a Defense Department aircraft tasked with providing overwatch for the U.S. border and supplying data for U.S. Customs, Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard. The blimp, equipped with various cameras and surveillance equipment, was fabricated to track drug smugglers on the ground and airborne. The PMEL flight calibrates 94 items across two Fat Albert blimps stationed at Cudjoe Key Air Force Station, Florida.

Fat Albert’s mission is to “keep an eye in the sky” - to serve as an airborne asset not visible from the ground. Invisibility is paramount for Fat Albert in order to execute its mission to counter drug trafficking operations conducted by the U.S. border patrol, U.S. Customs, Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard, said Tech. Sgt. Timothy Barnes, 20th CMS PMEL electronics section NCO in charge.

“Aerial surveillance serves in the detection of narcotics before they reach the U.S.,” said Chip Lyons, Cudjoe Key site manager. “It’s important to stop these runs, because they are destroying our youth, said Lyons.”

Airman 1st Class Steven Suarez, 20th CMS PMEL journeyman, takes pride in knowing that his work supports agencies nation-wide, to include preventing illegal drugs from entering the U.S.

“It great to see that our impact is not just Air Force-wide but influences outside agencies as well,” said Airman 1st Class Steven Suarez, 20th CMS PMEL journeyman. “I’m from Miami so I know first-hand the effects of drugs on the youth. It’s good to see that what I do here is making an impact around the country.”

Supporting Fat Albert requires performing calibrations on gauges, torque wrenches, and test measurement and diagnostic equipment.

“TMDE such as spectrum analyzers, are used to precisely position satellites,” said Barnes. “The equipment acts like a frequency counter and enables communications and radar applications to be broadcasted and received accurately.”

Equipment calibrations on the gauges, torque wrenches, test measurement and diagnostic equipment used to maintain Fat Albert must be precise. If measurements are inaccurate, potential drug shipments can slip through the giant’s grasp.

PMEL Airmen also calibrate the systems that assist with the collection of contraband once it has been identified by Fat Albert.

Once it is spotted and recovered, contraband is weighed on a large one-of-a-kind scale kept precisely accurate by the 20th CMS PMEL flight. The scale is capable of weighing up to 453 kilograms of contraband at a time – a massive amount of drugs that could go unnoticed without accurate calibrations from Shaw’s PMEL Airmen.

“Our main task being customs and border patrol, we need our equipment to do what (it is) designed to do,” said Lyons. “Without Shaw’s assistance in the calibration and certification of our equipment, we cannot do our job.”