Photo by Eric Keith / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Tech. Sgt. Larry Payne traverses a hangar at the 139th Airlift Wing on Thursday after finishing the majority of his airplane maintenance duties for the day.

The eight Lockheed C-130H transport planes at Rosecrans Memorial Airport have an enviable flying record compiled over the last 20 years.

Each of these planes has between 9,700 and 11,200 hours flying time, said Lt. Col. Andy Halter, logistics director and commander of the 139th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

The planes have flown to six continents, participated in both the Iraq and the Afghanistan wars, as well as a host of other armed conflicts, said Maj. Barbara Denny, a spokeswoman for the 139th Airlift Wing.

Flying in hostile environments puts a lot of stress on airplanes because of the austere locations, Mr. Halter said. Once the planes leave the United States, it’s likely that they will be landing on unimproved runways or dirt fields that add a lot of wear and tear, he said.

Studies show that wartime flying translates to increased stress, so 11,000 hours of flying could mean the wear and tear equivalent of 24,000 hours of flying.

“We know that metal has a memory and rust never sleeps,” Mr. Halter said.

So for the 240 men and women of the maintenance squadron, all this flying means a lot of inspections and maintenance work. But in at least one respect, the Air Guard has an advantage over the active duty Air Force units. Aircraft mechanics in the Air Guard can spend significant amounts of time working on the same aircraft while active duty personnel have to rotate on a regular schedule to different units.

In some cases, the squadron has had sergeants who spend their entire career working on the same aircraft, Mr. Halter said. This depth of knowledge means they’ve seen about every type of C-130 aircraft maintenance problem there is and know what has to be done to fix a problem, he said.

“The other thing that helps maintenance is the aircrews who have as much pride as we do,” he said. “Some crew chiefs treat their planes better than their cars.”

The best compliment the Air Guard gets is when an active duty crew flies one of the Airlift Wing’s planes and is surprised by the aircraft’s maintenance, appearance and smooth handling, Mrs. Denny said.

The Air Guard has to respond to natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, Mrs. Denny said, and the Wing provides flying time for an additional 25 instructors from the Advanced Airlift Tactics Training Center.

All this flying means the planes out at Rosecrans have some of the highest utilization rates in the U.S. Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, Mr. Halter said.

People can expect to see those aircraft safely flying in and out of St. Joseph for a lot of years to come, Mrs. Denny said.

Marshall White can be contacted

at marshall@npgco.com.