Wade Rogers had a general idea late in high school that it was his destiny to swing wrenches of some type as a few close relatives of his are mechanics in various trades. It was when a recruiter from the local A&P school came into his electronics class and gave a presentation that he says he realized this is what I was going to do.
Rogers' career began in 2007 with Mesaba Airlines in DTW, which was a great stepping stone working on Saabs and CRJs. He spent the first four years of his Delta Air Lines career at BWI then transferred home to Detroit where he reports to work now, and hopefully for many years to come, as he says his roots are deeply planted in Michigan.
In the past, Rogers won an internal Delta award- "Employee of the Quarter Award 2Q 2012". "I was line maintenance in BWI at the time, working dayshift by myself," he explained. "An A320 was about to depart when the crew noted an issue that needed to be addressed. I figured out shortly that the problem could not be MEL'd due to a conflicting MEL already on the A/C, therefore, I had to repair one issue or the other. Long story short, the captain of the flight specifically noticed me running back and forth from the office to the A/C to make the necessary repairs in a timely manner, and evidently that impressed him enough to put me in for the award. My manager, dad, and myself went to Atlanta to have lunch with the VP of line maintenance and it was a neat experience. Though it was just an ordinary day to me, it was nice to be recognized for our everyday efforts."
One way that Rogers' wife has offered his services, against his will at the time, he says, to give back, was giving a presentation at his children's school on career day. "She told me that even if I influence the mind of only one young person, it will totally be worth it," he noted. "She was right."
Peter Adzema, AMT for Delta Air Lines nominated Rogers for this award. "He came into Mesaba Airlines a 20 year old farm boy with a passion to work and learn like I have never seen in my 24 years as an AMT," explained Adzema. "No matter what was broke on the aircraft from engine problems, to flight control problems, to even the worst job, a bad lavatory. He was always there to do the job and use his remarkable skills to fix the problems and make the aircraft ready for flight in a safe and timely manner. Now we both work at Delta and every day he comes into work he ask the leads for the biggest problem child aircraft or the biggest work package. Then, when he is finished with his work assignments for the day he comes into the lead's office and asks who else needs help. I have never seen such great work ethic from anyone in my 24 years in this business. He has been to every aircraft type school Delta has in its fleet and is run and taxi qualified on all aircraft. He is the biggest asset to Delta Tech Ops in DTW."
