Airman sees birth of F-22, retires after 12 years with jet

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Rachelle Elsea
  • 325th FIghter Wing Punlic Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  After 22 years of service to his country, Master Sgt. Gregory Auzenne, 43rd Aircraft Maintenance unit lead production superintendent, retired from the United States Air Force March 4.

After graduating high school in Iowa, La., in 1988, Sergeant Auzenne enlisted in the Air Force.

"I simply wanted to serve my country and secure a way of life for my wife and I," said Sergeant Auzenne. "I also had family members that had served as well."

After completing Basic Militayr Training at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, he was assigned to Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas for training as an F-16 Eagle dedicated crew chief, then to Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., where he finished technical school.

"At first I was trying to secure a job working on helicopters and the rescue field," Sergeant Auzenne said. "High performance fighter aircraft was second on the list and that is what I was chosen for."

After he completed technical training, he was assigned to his first operational Air Force base.

"I started out on F-16s at Misawa Air Base, Japan," said Sergeant Auzenne. "At the time, I heard about the advanced technical fighter competition between the F-23 Northrop/McDonnel Douglas YF-22 a prototype aircraft, and the F-22 Raptor. From then on, I wanted on one of those programs. So, when the F-23 engineers traveled to Misawa to gather a maintainer's perspective on the F-16, I jumped at a chance to talk to them."

His desire to work with the up-and-coming-fighter jet programs was not immediately met.

"We completed an Integrated Combat Turn in full chemical gear to demonstrate some of the difficult tasks on the F-16 and give those inputs to the F-23 engineers to see if they could eliminate difficulties on the new Advance Tactical Fighters," Sergeant Auzenne said. "From there I was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., on the F-117 Night Hawk. I was still trying in my spare time to get into one of those programs."

"In 1996, after numerous calls to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., I contacted a Chief Master Sergeant, who was in charge of the F-22 Combined Flight Test Program," he said.

At the time the CTF did not have an aircraft. It was still in production.

"The chief requested an application package, which I quickly drew up and sent to him," said Sergeant Auzenne. "A year later, in 1998, I was transferred from Kunsan Air Base, Korea to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The next day, a C-5 cargo aircraft landed on the base with the first F-22 on board."

Sergeant Auzenne has been with the F-22 ever since, with a one year break, when he got orders to Kunsan again.

From Edwards Air Force Base, he put in a request to set up Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., as the first active F-22 unit in the Air Force. His request was granted and he was selected as the first F-22 dedicated crew chief in the first active unit.

Sergeant Auzenne eventually found his way to Tyndall.

"I greatly enjoyed my final assignment at Tyndall," Sergeant Auzenne said. "I loved walking out on the flight line and seeing the 29 F-22s I'm in charge of and knowing that each one of them is in the current position on the flight line because of the decisions that I made day in and day out. Each one of those jets has certain scheduled maintenance that has to be done prior to its next flight; and I scheduled all of those maintenance jobs and the flying schedule."

Sergeant Auzenne said he will never forget the people either.

"I will miss the maintainers the most," said Sergeant Auzenne. "In my job, I did my very best to make sure the maintainers had everything they needed to accomplish the task at hand and also, I constantly encouraged them to pay attention to detail, so as to avoid re-attacking a task multiple times."

Although Sergeant Auzenne is now retired, he still hopes to work closely with his aircraft of choice.

"My plan is to continue to support the F-22s as a subject matter expert, if I can," Sergeant Auzenne said. "There aren't a lot of people that have more than 12 years of experience with the Raptor. During my career, I have been trying my best to pass on the knowledge to anyone who wants to know more."

For those Airmen destined to follow in his footsteps, Sergeant Auzenne leaves a final piece of advice.

"Work hard and save hard," said Sergeant Auzenne. "Working hard will make it easier to grab those jobs that are important to you. Saving money, from a retirement perspective, is very important because 20 years go by fast and very few retirees are financially ready to retire."