#IAMIMSC: Shawn Kirkpatrick
Duty title and unit: High voltage electrician, AFCEC Civil Engineer Maintenance, Inspection and Repair Team, Tyndall AFB, Florida
Primary duty responsibilities: I perform preventive and corrective maintenance on electrical distribution systems throughout the Air Force. My work includes performing substation maintenance on medium voltage circuit breakers, low voltage breakers and switchgear; and calibrating protective relays and conducting thermographic scans of the electrical distribution systems to locate potential points of failure so they can be repaired before they reach a critical state. I also respond to emergency requests from bases to repair critical infrastructure and backup power systems.
What’s the best part of your job?
I really enjoy going on temporary duty assignments to different bases across the Air Force and Space Force. I like that every day is something different so you are never doing the same thing twice.
Why are you and your job important to the Air Force and AFMC?
The electrical distribution system is critical to all aspects of what we as an Air Force do every day. Without reliable power, it would be very hard for most folks across the enterprise to do their daily jobs.
What’s a recent project that gave you a great sense of accomplishment?
We were called by Moody Air Force Base, Georgia, because they had a catastrophic failure of one of their medium voltage circuit breakers at their substation. We were tasked with ensuring they would not have another failure. In less than 48 hours, we were on site at Moody testing their system and making critical repairs to their substation to prevent more system failures. We were able to determine the root cause of the system failure and help ensure it would not happen again.
Which AFIMSC priority do you most identify with – or see yourself and your job fitting into – and why?
Everyone at CEMIRT plays a vital role in increasing the lethality and readiness of the Air Force. Without electricity it is very difficult for the flying mission or any mission to happen successfully day after day. With today’s dependency on computer-based training, record keeping and just day to day operations, having a reliable electrical distribution system is critical in everything we as an Air Force do.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I believe there is not a better organization to be a part of than CEMIRT; it’s great being able to have such a large impact on the Air Force from such a small group of dedicated people.