What is a Greenshirt - AMDO



What is a Greenshirt?

By

LCDR Bryant Hepstall

From the time we are small children, dreams and ideas are embedded in our thoughts. We want to be an Astronaut, Airplane Pilot, Doctor, Lawyer …the spectrum of our thoughts and dreams is endless. Some great Americans choose to represent and defend our great nation and become Officers in the United States Navy. Whether the path to commissioning is via the U.S. Naval Academy, ROTC, Officer Candidate School (OCS), the Limited Duty Officer/Chief Warrant Officer (LDO/CWO) program, or another commissioning program, being a Naval Officer is a role like no other. You must represent clear and consistent standards of ethics, maintain an exemplary level of personal responsibility and integrity as well as encompass the concepts of Honor, Courage, and Commitment.

In the world of Naval Aviation, there are two major categories of Officers: Aviators (Pilots and Naval Flight Officers) and Professional Maintenance officers. Aviators are highly trained and skilled personnel who operate our flying war machines. Professional Maintenance officers are highly trained and skilled personnel who are entrusted with the care and maintenance of these same multi-million dollar machines. Both types of officers allow the United States to continue to project forward presence, preserve our freedom and maintain air superiority throughout the world. Aviation Professional Maintenance officers have many titles. Some common ones are: Ground Pounders, Greenshirts, Maintainers, FIXO’s, and/or MO’s. The Aviation Professional Maintenance officer must be the epitome of values such as honor, courage, and commitment. These elements are vital to their character as pilot’s lives are at stake every time they fly into combat. Pilots must be certain that the aircraft they fly is ready to take them to the fight and back. They rely completely on that Aviation Professional Maintenance officer to give them that fully functioning aircraft.

There are many different avenues to become an Aviation Professional Maintenance officer (aka…Greenshirt). You can apply and be selected as an Aerospace Maintenance Duty Officer (AMDO) through the Naval Academy, ROTC or through OCS. You can also become an Aviation Professional Maintenance officer by applying and being selected through the LDO/CWO program. Regardless of the path chosen, these officers are really one in the same – they are Greenshirts.

But how did the “Greenshirt” community get started? In the 50s and 60s, there was a large cadre of 1350s involved in maintenance (not just Limited Duty Officer(LDO’s) and Chief Warrant Officers(CWO’s). Many were former aviators and their hearts were not in maintenance or its concepts. These officers were placed in these jobs by default because the detailers needed something to do with them. As a whole, they couldn’t be considered professional anything. They’d be just as likely to end up as fuels officer at Miramar as V6 officer aboard Oriskany (V6 was the division in Air Dept that preceded AIMD). While there were some good ones, and many of the original 100 Aerospace Maintenance Duty Officers(AMDO’s) were 1350s, this was a problem that needed attention.

Beginning in the late 1950s and continuing through the early 1960s, various CNO-directed studies identified a need for an officer corps dedicated to providing full-time, professional aircraft maintenance. This need was in response to the challenges presented by a new generation of sophisticated and expensive weapon systems then being introduced into the fleet. Anticipated reliability and maintainability issues could not be permitted to compromise the operational readiness or flight safety of aircraft. There were simply too few professional maintenance officers available to meet these new challenges. Clearly there was a need for additional aviation maintenance officers.

The Limited Duty Officer varies in experience, depending on what encompasses his or her technical specialty and background. These individuals also vary in technical expertise and are all prior enlisted sailors who have achieved a minimal rank of first class petty in one of the aviation maintenance fields (AT, AD, AM, PR, AZ).

The Chief Warrant Officer is a technical expert who primarily specializes in Avionics, Hydraulics, Airframes, or Powerplants. They are also prior enlisted and must have achieved a minimal rank of Chief Petty Officer in one of the aviation fields (AT, AD, AM, PR, AZ).

But because of the need for additional professional maintenance officers, the Aerospace Maintenance Duty Officer community was established. As a result of dedicated lobbying efforts led by Captain Howard Goben and Commander Virg Lemmon, in June 1967 BUPERS formally proposed the establishment of the AMDO designator, 152X. In November 1967, House Resolution 13050 amended Title 10 United States Code to permit SECNAV to create the AMDO designation in the Naval Officer Corps. The Secretary of the Navy officially established this new Restricted Line community in March 1968. The original AMDO mission was “To provide full-time direction in the development, establishment, and implementation of maintenance and material management policies and procedures for the support of naval aircraft, airborne weapons, attendant systems and related support equipment" and is still valid to this day.

Today, in addition to working in maintenance organizations throughout the fleet, greenshirts (AMDOs, LDOs, and CWOs ) are indeed, very much involved in all aspects of aviation maintenance. From material acquisition and logistic support staffs in major aviation programs at NAVAIR, to program directors and Commanding Officers at our Naval Aviation Depots, to staff offices at major commands providing technical and material support, the Aviation Professional Maintenance officer is fully engaged is supporting the Naval Aviation Enterprise.

So whether they are an AMDO, LDO or CWO, are forward deployed or on the beach, greenshirts are the “life’s blood” of Naval Aviation. With our support, there is nothing that cannot be accomplished.

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