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LRS breaks 2 of their own records

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Carolyn Viss
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan --  The 376th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron broke two of their own records in March, for most passengers moved and most fuel pumped here, at the "gateway to Afghanistan."

The passenger terminal pushed through approximately 50,000 multi-national, U.S. and coalition troops, and the petroleum, oil and lubricants flight issued 12,500,102 gallons of jet fuel in March.

The previous record number of passengers processed in a month was 36,000 - a milestone reached in November 2009. Now, the Transit Center is busier than ever because there are more troops passing through.

"It took a team effort from LRS," said Senior Master Sgt. Will Schwartz, aerial port flight superintendent, who credited his hard-working team of six NCOs and an Airman, calling them "superstars."

Of course, it took help from the transportation flight as well, which moved the baggage bins and pallets, he said.

"We've had 204,000 passengers transit through since October 2009," the superintendent said.

Processing an extra service members took around-the-clock work from the terminal counter, terminal yard, and baggage representatives.

"The normal ops were consistently steady, but now it is truly busy," Sergeant Schwartz said. "By comparison, in December, we moved 5,388 passengers by the third week. Within our third week of March, we moved about 12,000."

POL Airmen also outdid themselves.

"Airmen 1st Class Destin Noak and Dustin Hammond pumped one million gallons of jet fuel in a month (March 2010), working 12-hour shifts six days a week," said Master Sgt. Scott Hunkins, who supervised both Airmen during their record-breaking shift.

The 12-million gallon record was a team effort, but what these two guys did was an individual record, the master sergeant explained.

"The million gallon club (issued in one month) is a very exclusive club and is quite an accomplishment at any installation, not just Manas," he said. "I know of only a few places that any Airman has pumped that much gas in a month," noting Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, Southwest Asia.

But there is a definite difference in how these two guys joined that club, he continued.

"At Ramstein and [Southwest Asia] they use Hydrant Servicing Vehicles, or hydrant pantographs, to issue fuel to an aircraft," he explained. "With this equipment, a person can issue up to about 40,000 gallons of fuel at one time. So using this equipment makes it a lot easier to issue a million gallons. Here at Manas, we have fuel trucks that issue approximately 5,000 gallons at one time. After that, the driver must fill his truck and go back out to the aircraft. So it would take a driver several trips to equal one HSV or pantograph run.

"In order for these guys to issue a million gallons of fuel in a month, they had to take more than 200 truck runs instead of the 25-50 runs it would take in a HSV/pantograph."

The 18-year veteran said he has never heard of anyone reaching that milestone in a truck alone, let alone two people doing so in the same month.

"I would be willing to bet that this is the first time ever that two people pumped a million gallons of fuel in a single month using only the fuel trucks we have here," he said.

Part of the reason they were able to do so was that the Transit Center is busier than previous times. "We have almost doubled our workload here," said Sergeant Hunkins.
A normal day for these Airmen is getting to work, pumping gas for hours straight without a break, grabbing a bite to eat, and then going back out on the flight line to pump gas until they are relieved. They stay busy no matter what is going on.

They aren't stopping now that they have joined the Million Gallon Club.

"I believe that they want to get that each and every month while they are here!"