Adventures in FOD walking

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jamie Erickson
  • 452nd Maintenance Group
Tech. Sgt. Jamie Erickson of Beaumont, Calif., is an electronic systems inspector with the 452nd Maintenance Group's quality assurance office.  Here, he shares an insider's perspective of running the quarterly base-wide FOD walk (the date he tracked was Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011)

0626 Arrive at work ready for the production that is the March base-wide FOD walk. It looks to be a nice day with little wind. There should be a good turnout.

0641 Materials are gathered and golf carts and trucks checked out. Fellow quality assurance co-workers are deciding who needs to go where and do what.

0709 Heading out to flight line, wondering what faces of friends I will see. The FOD walk is a great time to get briefly reacquainted with old friends and share stories.

0713 A civilian Boeing 747 arrives to take a group of Marines somewhere overseas. There's going to be some extra noise on this walk. Glad we brought ear protection!

0724 An old friend and former coworker comes by to talk fantasy football and about our new career paths. We both had a good draft strategy and it's paying off this year!

0730 It's show time and we get everyone together for a briefing. It's great to see maintenance, air crew, medical and admin personnel all getting together to prevent damage to our aircraft.

0739 As people are out searching for potential FOD, the 747 is a reminder of the importance of our part in keeping them safe so they can do their job.

0750 The FOD is collected and weighed. We track how much FOD is collected to determine if there is a positive or negative trend to the amount of FOD on the airfield.

0814 Searching through the debris to see if there is anything noteworthy or any dropped objects from an aircraft or aerospace ground equipment. Nothing major which is a positive thing!

0946
 Completing report for the quarterly FOD/DOP meeting.

1136 Meeting up with some friends for some good lunchtime sand volleyball!

1342 Met with Exchange manager about gift bags for superior performers of the FOD program.

1456 Taking a drive around the airfield to ensure FOD containers are emptied for the day.

1637 Best part of the day! My wife smiles as I walk through the door and my boys run into my arms.

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