SteveM8597 wrote:

Tac fighter aquadrons were pretty well self contained in the late 60s with both
maintenance and ops in the same unit.

I remember the "fighter squadron concept"; my first real
assignment was to the 43rd TFS (MacDill). It worked okay,
but required massive duplication of manpower (specialties)
in every squadron - and some of those skills were in very
short supply.

Of course, it was tried only in TAC - while the combat
wings in PACAF and USAFE stayed with the older AMS/MMS/FMS/OMS
mold.

The earlier "Armament & Electronics" squadrons (along with
FMS for the mechanical trades) and OMS for crew cheifs was
pretty good, too.

Then the AF mandated a SAC type organizational structure with separate
squadrons for ops and the various maintenance types, Avionics (AMS),
Munitions (MMS), Field or backshop (FMS) and Organizational or
flightline OMS.

This was the norm; it was efficient of manpower, and
gave good training to the specialties.

Apparently worked for big airplanes but well at all for fighters

Your dreaming. It worked oustandingly for fighters.

Things improved a lot under COMO and POMO in TAC.

Let me correct that: you're ****in' delusional.

POMC (it's first name), COMO, and POMO (all the same thing)
were a disaster of major proportions for the fighter forces,
particularly when it came to maintenance training.
We had 7-level specialists in AGS who didn't have a clue
about how their systems worked. Not surprising: they never
got a chance to fix them. They spent most of their time
kicking chocks, hanging tanks, and manhandling refuels.
Under POMO, the only time a lot of jets were actually fixed
(instead of patched PMC) - was when they were handed over to
EMS or CRS for phase, radar cal, etc. Otherwise, "tires and
fires" were all that mattered.

- John T., F-4 WCS toad and memeber of the 1st, 4th, 15th,
36th, 50th, 56th, 86th, and 388th (Korat) TFWs...