TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. -- Maintenance crews came together for a Crashed, Damaged or Disabled Aircraft Recovery exercise, known as CDDAR at Tinker Air Force Base Nov. 7.
The CDDAR is an annual exercise designed to give members of the crash teams a real-world experience by performing an aircraft lift while using the required equipment. Maintenance groups also practice another scenario, lifting the nose of an aircraft off the ground in the case of a failed landing gear.
The scenario for this year’s exercise included recovering the fuselage of a T-37 Tweet trainer aircraft from a simulated crash. This aircraft was also used for training in 2019.
Members of the 552nd Maintenance Group, the 507th Maintenance Group and the 569th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron worked together to complete this exercise.
“The CDDAR mission is only possible due to the combined expertise of each team member,” said Joshua Harvey, 569th Crane Services supervisor.
He says that this year’s exercise provided distinctive challenges and circumstances for the team.
“This particular exercise provided valuable training due to the terrain but due to working together as one team, we were able to complete the mission with ease,” said Harvey.
Practicing these scenarios are vital to ensure that units at Tinker work together in a coordinated effort if such a situation were to happen in real life.
“CDDAR scenarios are all different and require the technical expertise of the group to recover the aircraft safely, quickly, and without causing additional damage,” said Harvey.
He emphasized that the partnership between units is crucial and makes Team Tinker unique.