AMMO (U.S. Air Force) - Career Field Description

Career Field Description

AMMO is responsible for maintaining the US Air Force's entire munitions stockpile. Various duties include shipping and receiving, building, testing, operating, protecting, inspecting, storing and performing maintenance on all types of conventional munition systems. AMMO personnel also operate and maintain a wide variety of equipment and electronic gear, from pallet jacks to 40-foot (12 m) tractor-trailer combination vehicles, all-terrain 10,000 pound forklifts, all the way up to 50,000 pound forklifts, and from small arms ammunition for rifles and pistols to large-scale guided bombs, to include AGM-65 guidance testing units and computer databases. Upon graduation from Air Force Basic Military Training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas, Airmen assigned to the field attend an 8-week tech school at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. Upon graduation from tech school, the new AMMO apprentice is sent to their assigned duty station.

Ammo==Isolation and Culture== Due to safety concerns with the possibility of explosives accidentally cooking off and damaging a large portion of a base, the Munitions Storage Area (or "Bomb Dump" as it is commonly called) is usually isolated or barricaded from the rest of base. At some bases, such as RAF Welford in United Kingdom, the ride to work can take as long as fifty minutes, compared to a 4 or 5 minute commute for people in most other career fields. Isolation from the main base breeds a culture within the Munitions section where the troops go out of their way to take care of their own. While other Air Force career fields would find it necessary to go further up the chain of command for disciplinary matters, discplinary issues in Ammo are not usually escalated out of the Bomb Dump.

The official motto of the Ammo career field as learned by Ammo troops on the first day of technical training is "If you ain't Ammo, you ain't shit". Often seen abbreviated as I.Y.A.A.Y.A.S. There are also various other things that AMMO troops can often be heard shouting, they are unofficial and should remain part of the "Isolation and Culture", not public knowledge.

The Ammo career field has a very close family mentality. Ammo troops are expected to treat each other as brothers and sisters. They are expected to take care of each other and each others families in times of need, especially true of the families of troops who are deployed, This also applies to former Ammo troops. Ammo troops are often known to be a rowdy but good-natured crowd with a reputation for drinking. As part of the family mentality and the reputation for drinking, Ammo troops are always expected to make sure other troops make it home safely no matter what hour the call should come, whether they personally provide a ride or arrange for a ride, all Ammo troops are generally held responsible for each other in this matter.