Gilmer High School Air Force Junior ROTC Pitches-In To Enhance Safety for Airport Operations and the Flying Public at Fox Stephens Field (JXI)

Written by: Steve Dean, Flight of the Phoenix Aviation Museum

Two men in orange safety jackets standing in front of a truck — *Gilmer TxDOT roadway sweeper team Roderick Davis and Lee De Jong at Gilmer’s Fox Stephens Field*

As part of the Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT’s) Don’t Mess With Texas Adopt An Airport initiative, the Gilmer Air Force Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (AFJROTC) is developing and implementing a Foreign Objects Debris (FOD) Awareness and Mitigation Program for the airport. The activity is an initiative conceived by Major Jeremy Stowers, head of the Gilmer High School AFJROTC and is part of the Flight of the Phoenix Aviation Museum Aviation STEaM Program. His students will complete several projects to help this initiative.

AFJROTC cadets standing in front of a sign that reads "Adopt an Airport Gilmer High School AFJROTC" with a building in the background. — *Gilmer High School AFJROTC cadets.*

Stowers, shown below with his cadets, is an instrument-rated pilot and a certified air traffic controller. After a career in air traffic control and airfield management with the United States Air Force, he moved to Gilmer to join the Gilmer Independent School District as head of the AFJROTC Cadet Wing.

The periodic deployment of TxDOT roadway sweeping equipment, funded through the TxDOT Aviation Routine Airport Maintenance Program, is a key part of the initiative. More importantly, awareness training will encourage local pilots and drivers of vehicles on the airport tarmac — including pilots, airport tenants, delivery vehicles, maintenance, fuel delivery and construction vehicles — to develop and maintain a keen awareness of the need for FOD mitigation. Users of small general aviation airports like Gilmer sometimes overlook the importance of FOD mitigation. With an increase of turbine and turboprop-powered aircraft activity at JXI, a robust FOD mitigation program becomes increasingly essential. Small rocks or debris no larger than pea gravel can cause major damage to jet engines and propeller blades on all types of prop-driven planes.

FOD awareness training will challenge operators of all vehicles on the tarmac and taxiways to use common sense and ensure their tires are clean and free of debris.