The men and women of Robins Air Force Base protect our freedoms, but to fight, they have to be fit.

13WMAZ went "Behind the Lines" with Robins' Public Health Division to see how they battle disease at home and abroad.

SSgt. Tam Nguien's weapons fit in the palm of his hand. He's a technician in the Immunization Clinic.

The shots he gives to patients numerous times a day fight illnesses that could attack even Robins' most fragile civilians.

When we visited the clinic, he was giving routine immunizations to six-month old Autumn Storie. She's the daughter of a Robins airman, Matt Storie.

Nguien said to the Stories, "See. She did good. She stopped crying."

The routine injections against tetanus and whooping cough, like Autumn received, protect airmen and their families at home.

The current leader of the Warner Robins Air Logistics Complex says he intends to drive the work and people there toward "legendary" status.

Brig. Gen. Walter Lindsley took the helm in August, coming in as Robins implemented a new way of producing aircraft.

Lindsley's predecessor, Brig. Gen. Cedric George, implemented it as part of an Air Force wide directive to streamline aircraft maintenance.

Robins old way of doing business had it lagging behind maintenance depots at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma and Hill in Utah for doing the work on-time.

That's considered a drawback to Robins' ability to keep and attract work.

Lindsley said, "We were taking in six jets and only producing three jets. As you can imagine, the math doesn't add up, and pretty soon, I have twice as many as I am supposed to."

The number of grievances filed by Robins employees during the past year have stayed roughly the same.

That's despite pledges by the new union leadership to decrease the number of formal complaints alleging workplace violations at Robins.

However, union leaders and base management say those numbers don't tell the full story of their improving relationship.

Executive Vice President at the American Federation of Government Employees Local 987, Charles Howard, has been a union member for 15 years.

He says since the new administration took office last November, their way of doing business has changed. (The new administration officially took over in March. Irregularities were found in the first election, so a second was held in the spring, with the same results.)