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GORDON DANIELS

Working under the wing of a C-5 at Westover Air Reserve Base, Staff Sgt. Jacob Crafton from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, checks one of the planes components.

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GORDON DANIELS

Tom Krol, an aircraft mechanic from Easthampton, replaces paneling on the top portion of the aircraft. The C-5 is 247 feet long, with a 223-foot wingspan, and the tail is 65 feet tall.

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JAMES LOWE

Master Sgt. Theresa Murphy, of Belchertown, was one of about 60 from the 439th Aeromedical Staging Squadron who deployed to Iraq for four months last year.

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GORDON DANIELS

Tom Krol, an aircraft mechanic from Easthampton, replaces paneling on the top portion of the aircraft. The C-5 is 247 feet long, with a 222-foot wingspan, and the tail is 65 feet tall.

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GORDON DANIELS

Staff Sgt. Christopher Addley, a Reservist at Westover, says the crews' goal is to service a C-5 in 14 days.

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GORDON DANIELS

Staff Sgt. Christopher Addley, of Chicopee, a reservist at Westover, says the crews are working to service a C-5 in 14 days.

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GORDON DANIELS

Working under the wing of a C-5 at Westover Air Reserve Base, Staff Sgt. Jacob Crafton from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio, checks one of the planes components.

CHICOPEE - Westover Air Reserve Base is one of three facilities responsible for the upkeep of the U.S. military's biggest piece of equipment - the C-5 Galaxy cargo jet.

Occupying about 2,500 acres in Chicopee and Ludlow, Westover is the largest Reserve base in the country. While the 439 Airlift Wing runs the base, Westover is also home to a number of other units in the Reserve, National Guard and active-duty military. And the base is growing, with new facilities for Navy and Army Reserve units under construction.

While Westover personnel have been servicing C-5s for decades, it was only recently that the base became one of three select locations for the comprehensive maintenance of the planes. There are more than 100 C-5s in the Air Force, Air Reserve and Air National Guard, and 16 are based at Westover.

The checkups are done in a hangar large enough to house the entire plane, except for its six-story-high tail fin. The isochronal inspection facility - also known as the "iso dock" - is a structure that allows aircraft mechanics to pore over ever inch of a C-5, inside and out. Isochronal means "equal time," as under military regulations the planes must be inspected every 365 days.

"They don't just do a tune-up on it; they take the whole plane apart over the course of a few weeks," said Tech. Sgt. Andrew Biscoe, a member of Westover's public affairs staff.

Reservists, active-duty Air Force personnel and civilians staff the iso dock.

"It'll take our whole crew both day shift and night shift, which I would say combined is about 100 people, a full day just to take the panels off," said Senior Master Sgt. Todd Ramsey.

Then it's time for a methodical look at every piece of the aircraft, from those panels to the rivets that hold them on to the avionics and hydraulics beneath.

Master Sgt. Robert Hanson said that includes about 2,000 mechanical inspections and as many as 5,000 "write-ups" on everything from wires in need of replacing to moving parts in need of lubricant.

Sgts. Shawn Connolly and Christopher Addley focus on the 65-foot tail section of the C-5. Their work leaves them outside the iso dock itself on a massive wheeled scaffolding. Connolly, an active duty Air Force technician, said he climbs "92 stairs about 10 times a day."

"Just doing routine maintenance is aerobic," he said.

Work proceeds in all weather but lightning, Connolly said, but the view afforded from the top of the scaffold is rewarding. He can look from Mount Skinner to Mount Holyoke to downtown Springfield. On especially clear days, he can watch traffic on Interstate 91.

Westover's 439th Airlift Wing has 16 of its own C-5Bs. Recently the base was host to 12 C-5As from the 445th Airlift Wing out of Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, each awaiting an iso inspection. The two types of planes are essentially the same, but use different cockpit equipment.

There had been eight isochronal maintenance facilities around the country until the Air Force decided in 2006 to close five and consolidate inspections at Westover and bases in Dover, Del., and Martinsburg, W.Va.

Addley, a reservist, said it used to take 35 days to complete a stem-to-stern inspection. He said now, since the consolidation brought more active-duty and civilian staffers, each C-5 is in Westover's iso dock for an average of 20 days. The crew is trying to get even faster. The goal is a 14-day turnaround, Addley said.

"I would rather fly on a military aircraft than a commercial airline, because we have such an extensive inspection process and preventive maintenance process," Addley said.

"This is a big deal," Hanson said. "It puts a lot more aircraft back into the war effort. Sometimes it's hard working here day to day to see it from that perspective."

Not for Tom Krol. The Easthampton resident retired as an Air Reserve technician in March and took one of the new civilian jobs at the iso dock.

"It's the satisfaction of looking at it flying and knowing I was a part of keeping it up there," Krol said. "It makes me feel good being a part of it."

Krol said he would have been forced to retire from the Reserves in two years when he turns 60. A member of one military unit or other for the last 38 years, he got his start fixing C-123 Provider aircraft at Westover, and has been maintaining C-5s there full time since 1988. Krol said he wants to keep working on the Galaxy for another four or five years.

Westover's large work force

Westover's 439th Airlift Wing employs 3,213 people - 2,461 of them reservists, the rest civilians and active-duty military - filling many different roles within the military.

Thirteen members of the 439th Security Forces Squadron returned in July from a six-month mission defending Kirkuk Air Base in northern Iraq. More than 50 Westover reservists remain deployed around the world, according to Biscoe.

Last year Master Sgt. Theresa Murphy, of Belchertown, was one of about 60 from the 439th Aeromedical Staging Squadron who deployed to Iraq for four months to help staff a military hospital at Balad Air Base.

The base is heavily fortified, but did come under occasional mortar fire. Murphy said insurgents often mounted attacks during sandstorms, though she was never caught in one herself.

In Iraq, Murphy oversaw the patient records of wounded soldiers airlifted from Balad to a U.S. military hospital in Germany. She also volunteered in Balad Air Base's library. It was ordinary work, she said, altered somewhat by the fact that it was all taking place in a war zone.

"It was different because you have to be on your toes," Murphy said. "You have to know how to react."

Murphy said she got plenty of letters from her extended family back home, and this helped enormously to keep her spirits up while deployed.

Since returning to Westover, Murphy said she's made it part of her job to send care packages to other members of the 439th deployed overseas who might not have as much contact with the homefront as she did.

Murphy has been a member of the unit for 12 years and a full-timer for the last year. While still a traditional reservist, she worked in the records department at Cooley Dickinson Hospital. She said her experience working in medical records for the Reserves helped her get the job.

Also called the Patriot Wing, logos of the New England football team adorn some of the 439th's vehicles and aircraft.

In April, construction began on a $7 million installation for a Navy "Seabee" unit of more than 500 active duty and Reserve construction personnel. The unit is scheduled to move in next year.

Last month, 1,000 Army reservists from around the state were assigned to Westover's new $30 Army Reserve Center.

Citing the construction, other projects and payroll, base officials estimate Westover put $231 million into the local economy, according to a recent press release.

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.