SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, Germany — The pair of A-10 Thunderbolts stopped at the end of the runway and were swarmed by a team of airmen like NASCAR pit crews around a couple of stock cars.

Crew chiefs and weapons handlers from the 81st Fighter Squadron quickly got to work on Thursday as the jet engines continued to turn a deafening howl.

Inspect the tires for pebbles or other foreign objects? Check. Arm the weapons on the wings? Check. Scour the plane from nose to tail for any potential safety hazards? Check.

In less than five minutes, the team prepared the fighters for another training mission. By the end of the day, they would repeat the ritual more than three dozen times — a pace that would probably test the stamina of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s pit crew.

Thursday’s rapid-fire exercise gave pilots and maintainers a feel for what it is like to be at war for four days. Members of the 22nd and 81st Fighter Squadron called it Surge Week, a chance to test what both pilots and maintenance personnel can do while working at the rhythm of combat.

“For a lot of the young guys on both sides of the house, it’s the first time they’ve ever been exposed to this type of a tempo,” said Lt. Col. Brian Neumann, an F-16 pilot who serves as the director of operations for the 22nd Fighter Squadron.

Squadrons typically surge to make up for flight time lost due to weather or other unforeseen circumstances, or to break up the monotony of the routine training schedule.

Surges also build confidence.

From Sunday to Thursday, F-16 pilots with the 22nd and A-10 pilots with the 81st flew more than 250 missions. That’s more than double what pilots usually fly. On average, pilots fly three to five times a week. During the past week, pilots flew as many as a dozen times.

“I just landed from my 12th mission,” said Capt. Leigh Noel, catching her breath after her final mission for the day. “I’m really tired.”

Pilots flew from dawn to dusk to reach their goal, while maintainers worked around the clock to repair the aircraft and keep them flying.

“They break, we fix; they break, we fix,” said Chief Master Sgt. Darrin Dwyer, a chief maintainer with the 22nd. “We try and keep up the pace. It’s a continuous merry-go-round. But if they fly at a higher rate, they break at a higher rate.”

Pilots were encouraged to get plenty of rest and eat balanced meals to stay sharp. Some pilots in the morning flew three missions in a row, meaning they stayed fastened into the cockpit for as long as seven hours.

“The bottom line is you have to take care of yourself and be ready for it,” Neumann said. “Cause it is demanding, and it is busy.”

Maintenance personnel worked 12-hour shifts, but Staff Sgt. Richard Armpriester said the workload makes the time go by faster.

“Things are so fast paced in a 12-hour shift, it goes by in about five hours,” Armpriester said.

After the final mission Thursday night, squadron members hoped the intense flying showed how much work could be crammed into just four days. If the squadron is called to combat, the hope is that the younger airmen can draw from the training.

“It’s all about squeezing everything out of these troops that we can and showing them why it’s done,” Dwyer said.

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