POL Airmen fuel GWOT fight

Published Nov. 8, 2008
By Senior Airman Clinton Atkins
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

Southwest Asia -- Almost a million gallons of fuel will be delivered today to aircraft delivering supplies and troops and to those hunting the bad guys. "Business as usual," says a fuels distribution Airman.

The 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants flight conducts a multi-billion dollar per year operation providing fuel to more than 100 U.S. and Coalition aircraft here in Southwest Asia.

"Our job is to get gas out there whenever they need it 24/7," said Tech. Sgt. John Horton, fuels resource control center noncommissioned officer in charge. "Anything fuel movement-wise we know about it. (We) issue, receive, test and account for all fuel going out and coming onto the base. We're moving a million gallons out and a million gallons in on average every day. Right now, we average 950,000 gallons that we're pumping to aircraft and we're taking in right around 1.2 million gallons on average."

The 91-man fuels flight is readily available 24/7. Once a call is received, the fuels resource control center has a 30-minute response time. Depending on the type of request, a driver will take an R-11 or R-12 to refuel the aircraft.

The POL Airmen use 23 refueling pits on the flight line, which are fed through underground pipes, to expedite the workload.

"This way we don't have to keep bringing trucks in and out with fuel," said Airman 1st Class Jacob Brake, 379 ELRS/POL fuels distribution journeyman. "We can also directly refuel the aircraft from the refueling pit."

Since the base is a hub in Southwest Asia, a variety of aircraft transiting through the base benefit from the efficiency of fuels distribution, but also it presents unique challenges.

"Sometimes we'll get KC-10s passing through, which take 290,000 pounds of fuel, and we have to truck all of the fuel because they can't hook up to the pits," said Airman Brake, deployed from Robins Air Force Base, Ga. "It takes about eight truck loads to fill up one KC-10."

There is never a shortage of work, said the Macedonia, Ohio, native.

"It takes 45 minutes to fill a truck up with fuel and you're hustling all day long because we are always in demand," he said.

"I refuel about five to eight different aircraft per day on average, but for some aircraft it takes more than one run to fill it up," Airman Brake said. "At most, I've made about 13 to 14 runs in one day."

In this line of work, it's not uncommon for fuels distribution Airmen here to pump more than a million gallons of fuel.

"(In October) alone, Airman Brake has already pumped more than a million gallons himself," said Sergeant Horton, deployed from MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. "We move a lot of fuel here. We're looking at about 15 people in our shop, who have pumped a million gallons or more in October.

"I can tell you that in my Air Force career so far I haven't pumped a million gallons and (Airman Brake) is going to do it in a month," said the Tullahoma, Tenn., native.
Airman Brake was recognized with the title of "service king" for his outstanding fuels distribution accomplishments in September during which he refueled 158 aircraft."

"In a month, (top performers) back at my home station pump less fuel than what I do here in a day," Airman Brake said. "For our job, this is the busiest base in the Air Force. We pump more fuel than the five top Air Force bases combined."

By the end of his rotation, Airman Brake will have single-handedly refueled several hundred aircraft, and though he is proud of all his work, some spots shine brighter than the rest.

"There was one time I gave fuel to a C-17 that was carrying fallen service members who had fought and died for our country," he said. "It was one of the most humbling things I have ever done.

"(On the flipside), seeing the B-1s take off with bombs and come back with none is pretty cool too because you know if they didn't have fuel on that aircraft they wouldn't be able to drop those bombs," Airman Brake said. "It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it."