Four 'Ps' required before doing maintenance Published May 2, 2006 By 20th Maintenance Group 20th Fighter Wing SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. -- There are 2,000 maintainers in the 20th Maintenance Group performing maintenance on 80 F-16s, the components that go on the aircraft, ground equipment and munitions. Before any maintainer performs maintenance on Shaw’s aircraft, they must complete four prerequisites. If they are missing any of the four, or just feel something is not quite right, they are instructed to call “knock it off” and postpone further work until the problem is resolved, according to Col. Michael Vidal, 20th Maintenance Group commander. The first maintenance prerequisite is training. Each technician must be properly trained to do the job and that training must be properly documented, said Maj. Simon Izaguirre, 20th Maintenance Operations Squadron commander. The second prerequisite is ensuring units use correct technical data. Airmen must have the right data opened to the task at hand and they must follow that data step by step. If there is a task our technical orders do not cover, the task will not be done until procedures for that job are developed and published, said Lt. Col. Michael Costello, 20th Component Maintenance Squadron commander. The third prerequisite is ensuring proper tools and equipment are available for the job. Support sections provide all necessary tools; no personal tools are needed or allowed on the line and in work centers, said Lt. Col. Cheryl Minto, 20th Equipment Maintenance Squadron commander. The fourth prerequisite is providing technicians the time they need to do the job right. It is a supervisor’s responsibility to give Airmen the time they need to do the job correctly and document the work they perform, said Maj. David Cope, 20th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander. Maintainers must have all four prerequisites for success: training, technical data, tools and time. The four prerequisites are critical to producing safe, reliable, combat-ready aircraft, Col. Vidal said. No sortie, whether for training or combat, is important enough to perform maintenance without these four prerequisites. “Our technicians have the support from senior leadership to call ‘knock it off,’ until a problem is resolved. We will cancel sorties if needed, fix the problem and reschedule the sorties for another day,” said Col. Bill Hyatt, 20th Fighter Wing commander. “Our 2,000 maintainers provide our pilots quality jets every day by following these guidelines. We are very proud of each and every one of them.”