By Maj. Allen L. Gilbert
H-46 Programs Officer

Bucky D. Dunkum, an Airframes Mechanic assigned to the CH-46E Production Line, has been awarded the Cherry Point Naval Air Depot Safety Professional of the Month award for July.

Dunkum was nominated for exercising quick and appropriate judgment during recent routine maintenance on an expedited CH-46E helicopter. His instinctive and decisive action may have prevented a loss of life and the aircraft.

During the maintenance, Dunkum noticed a significant problem on the helicopter: a slight pealing edge on the tip of one of the forward rotor blades. After getting a closer look, he stopped the maintenance being performed on the aircraft and brought the flaw to the attention of his work leader. It was determined that the blade had been previously nicked and started pealing after the first couple of maintenance flights. Further fights could have resulted in a crash.

Because Dunkum took the appropriate actions by stopping maintenance and used risk management to evaluate the situation by bringing the damaged blade to the attention of his work leader and aircrew, he helped prevent a serious quality defect and possibly prevented a potentially devastating mishap. The tempo of operations during the time of this incident was high. The aircraft involved was the third aircraft of five that were expedited to help with Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“As soon as they come back from flying, we’re the first on the aircraft,” said Dunkum. “It’s our job to find whatever’s wrong and fix it.” In other words, he was just doing his job – said Dunkum in the modest fashion so typical of many depot artisans.

NADEP Commanding Officer Col. John D. Gumbel acknowledged during the award presentation that, yes, the men and women who work here make those kinds of proper decisions here daily, but it’s time to recognize those professionals for the good things they do, instead of just focusing on the mistakes that happen much more rarely, yet seem to get all of the attention.

And it would be fair to say that this sort of decisiveness probably comes easy to Dunkum and others like him on the hangar deck. He has worked here for six years, with 10 years of prior experience on F-14s in Norfolk and four years of working on jets in the U.S. Air Force. Even with the pressure to get the aircraft completed, he acted correctly when he put quality and safety first. He was looking out for this depot and the aircrew involved with performing the maintenance flights on this aircraft when he spoke up about the damaged blade.

Dunkum’s actions are commendable and were in keeping with Naval Air Depot Cherry Point’s business policy, “Unsurpassed Service to the Fleet, Relentless Focus on Quality.”

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Cutline: Bucky Dunkum was named the July Aviation Safety Professional of the Month for exercising quick and appropriate judgment during recent maintenance on a CH-43E helicopter. (Photo by Mike Barton)