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POL flight fuels fight

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Amanda Savannah
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Day and night, Airmen of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing fly aircraft, drive vehicles and use generators to make the mission happen.

However, without the 380th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron Petroleum, Oils and Lubricants flight, the mission wouldn't have the gas it needs for all those operations to work.

"You can do a lot of things, but if you don't have any fuel, you're simply not going anywhere," said Chief Master Sgt. Shawn Llewellyn, 380th ELRS POL flight fuels manager, who is deployed from Kadena Air Base, Japan.

The POL mission is to provide clean, serviceable fuel to any authorized customer on base who needs it.

Primarily, it is to the wing's aircraft. On average, POL moves approximately 1.5 million gallons of fuel per day in aviation fuel alone, Llewellyn said.

Recently, the flight has broken one of the wing's aviation refueling records and has come extremely close to breaking others, Llewellyn said. On June 6, POL serviced 88 aircraft in one day, which was the most aircraft fueled in a single day. They were less than 68,000 gallons away from breaking another record that day, for delivering the most amount of fuel in a single day.

To perform this crucial mission, several sections are required. They include a fuels laboratory, the fuel service center, storage, refueling maintenance, distribution and cryogenics.

Tech. Sgt. Thomas Capaldo, NCO in charge of the fuel service center, is deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.

"The FSC is the central nervous system for POL actions and responsibilities," said Capaldo, a native of Waterbury, Conn. "I'm in charge of accounting for the fuel, ordering it, and dispatching units when calls come in. I'm responsible for our ground products, aviation fuel and liquid oxygen and ensure we maintain our required inventory."

Airman 1st Class Michael Ratcliffe, fuels distribution driver operator, is deployed from Travis AFB, Calif.

"Operators distribute fuel to the aircraft and know general knowledge of the TOs (technical orders) so we do it safely and correctly," said Ratcliffe, who is from Clover, S.C. "We drive the truck to the aircraft ... the crew chief hooks the hose to the aircraft, and then we take care of the rest."

Airman 1st Class Kyle Freed, storage outlying areas, or OLA, technician, is deployed from Kadena AB.

"I go around to areas other people can't get to, making sure tanks are filled with liquid oxygen, mogas or diesel," said Freed, who is from Dixon, Ill. This includes other vehicles, the special equipment and fuel the U-2S aircraft here require, lightalls, generators and more, he said.

Staff Sgt. Daniel Klinger, NCO in charge of the fuels laboratory, is deployed from Eielson AFB, Alaska.

"I test the fuel off the tanks we receive and the tanks in storage to ensure the filters and everything are working properly," said Klinger, a Tomball, Texas, native.

The flight requires a great amount of teamwork between the sections to get the job done.

"We're over five different sections working together in kind of a chain reaction," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Hemenway, refueling mechanic, who is deployed from Kadena AB and is a native of Estacada, Ore. "Each has to communicate with the other and there can't be any failures, otherwise the whole mission might fail. It's every day, nonstop."

Llewellyn said his flight is doing a great job of completing its mission, 24 hours a day, every day.

"My folks have a lot of good cheer, good morale, good attitude," he said. "They understand what they're doing here, what the mission is, and how important it is. They do it with a certain amount of pinache ... and I think they do a damn fine job."

For many Airmen in the flight, they're just happy staying busy, working with their fellow POL members and knowing they are important to the wing's mission.

"It's the best job on base. Everybody needs fuel," Klinger said.