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Fueling freedom: Fuels Airmen keep mission going at Southwest Asia base

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Eric Summers Jr.
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Imagine having enough gas to fill the tanks of 410 average size cars every day for 10 years.

It's nearly the equivalent to the amount of fuel -- 25 million gallons -- the 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron's fuels management Airmen provide to aircraft in a single month at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.

The 379th ELRS fuels Airmen are responsible for the reception, holding, testing and distribution of fuels on the base.

"Everything needs fuel to run, to go, to move, so without having fuel delivered to an aircraft it can't take off," said Master Sgt. Joshua Burk, NCO in charge of mobile distribution, deployed from Misawa Air Base, Japan. "[For example] one of the KC-135 Stratotankers performing its in-flight refueling function -- which obviously their fuel is extremely critical because one, it takes fuel for the 135 to get off the ground, but it also takes fuel we give them to deliver to other aircraft in the air."

Fuel is also supplied to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, close air support and airlift aircraft such as the C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules which are the backbone of passenger and cargo airlift throughout the U.S. Central Command Area of Responsibility.

"Without fuel stuff is not going to get to where it goes," said Burk, a Red Lion, Penn., native.

Burk said one of the unit's main catch phrases is 'to deliver clean, dry fuel to the aircraft on-time' so it can meet its take-off time. Three Airmen in the unit used this motto as personal fuel and turned the refueling mission into a friendly competition.

A milestone for fuels Airmen is pumping 1million gallons in a month. Burk said with that extra work and sacrifice the goal can be achieved.

"Airmen Lorms, Holden and Winterstein stepped up and said they wanted to try for this month [September]," he said.

Senior Airman Bryan Winterstein and Senior Airman Marcus Holden, fuels distribution operators, competed head-to-head using a combination of fueling methods, while Airman 1st Class Kyle Lorms, fuels distribution operator, held his own contest to see if he could reach 1 million gallons using only R-11 fuel trucks.

Holden and Winterstein used both the R-11 fuel truck, which can only transport and distribute 6,000 gallons of fuel at a time, and the R-12 hydrant servicing vehicle which can attach to underground fuel lines and pump on a continuous basis.

Lorms, a native of Albuquerque, N.M., deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, said, " Everybody gets a million and everybody uses hydrants , so I wanted to set a little bit of a higher challenge for myself and doing it by truck is a little bit harder and takes a little more effort.

"It was a good accomplishment and it hasn't been done lately," added Lorms, who pumped approximately 1.1 million gallons from the 6,000-gallon capacity trucks. "One thing that kept me motivated was the competition."

Winterstein, deployed from Scott Air Force Base, Ill., pumped 1.619 million gallons of fuel in September.

"It [the competition] gave us something different to go against someone and helped make you reach that level that you didn't think you could reach before," he said. "We always try to get out there [to the aircraft] as fast as we can."

Lorms, whose average response time from the call for fuel to being planeside was eight minutes, completed more than 235 fuel runs. Holden, who completed 158 runs and Winterstein, who completed 172 runs, both averaged 16 minutes.

"I tried not to keep up with the numbers," said Holden, deployed from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. "I just wanted to put fuel in the aircraft and get the mission done." 

Holden, a Fort Valley, Ga., native, pumped 1.609 million gallons in September. He said that teamwork was a key to achieving the feat.

"If it wasn't for the teamwork we probably wouldn't have come close to 1.6 million," Holden said. "The drivers would come out there and switch trucks with us, give us the R-12 and we would finish out a hydrant run, then they would come out there with another (full) R-11 and we didn't stop -- kept pumping fuel all day, every day."

All three of the Airmen agreed that operations at the deployed location are much faster than their home station tempo.

"It's a lot faster pace from [Joint Base MDL] -- the runs are shorter but there are more of them," Holden said. "They told me that this was the busiest Air Force base in the world."

Winterstein agrees.

"Nothing can really prepare you for the level of busy that we are here," said the Joliet, Ill., native. "I went from doing three runs a day back at home station to every person doing 10 runs a day."

Burk said he enjoys seeing his Airmen being motivated to do the job -- and do it safely -- and keep each other motivated.

"Seeing them taking care of each other is what makes me happy, to know that they're self sufficient," he said. "As a supervisor that's one of the best feelings -- knowing that the guys you have around you can operate on their own and you're just there to direct them."

Winterstein said he felt proud to compete against his fellow Airmen but he's even more proud of his job.

"Every time you see a plane take off it's a good feeling knowing that the plane wouldn't be leaving if I hadn't just given it fuel," he said.