A photo in today’s Phoenix republic shows a ground crew doing final checks on an F-16 at local Luke air force base. All three are dressed in athletic soes, cargo shorts and T-shirts with conventional earmuff hearing protection. WTF? I was in the navy but we never went on the flight line in civilian dress. Dungarees or utilities on shore or O.D. fatigue pants with a flight deck jersy on the ship. Plain earmuffs were verboten as they could be sucked into an engine. We were requird to wear a flight deck helmet with chin strap and goggles. Tennis shoes? Not a chance, hard toe flight boots or boondockers at the very least. What gives?
It’s hard to be sure without seeing the picture, but just the fact that they’re on an AF base doesn’t necessarily mean it’s an AF crew. They might be technicians from the plane’s manufacturer, or from some company that deals with a subsystem of the aircraft.
Alternatively, the paper might have gotten the caption wrong and used a stock photo of an F16 and said it was at Luke.
Could be the reserves. They were at the AFB I am stationed at working on bombs in civilian clothing.
Several Air Force Bases, ESPECIALLY those in Air Education and Training Command (AETC, of which Luke AFB is a part, as they train F-16 pilots there) have their aircraft maintenance contracted out to civilian agencies. This has become more prevalent in the past few years as deep budget cuts and low recruiting make it impossible to support operations with military members. Contrary to what the pay scale might look like for the lower enlisted ranks, it is actually cheaper to hire a civilian contractor than to use AF personnel. This is because you don’t have to give the contractor free medical and dental care, a housing allowance or base housing, food allowance, etc.
Does everyone like this trend? No. Does it decrease our military readiness by having less military people to do the job? Absolutely. But that is what we have been driven to by recent budget cuts.