Manas fuels team gets high praise

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Les Waters
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) --  When the 40 Airmen from the 376th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron's Fuels Management Flight pulled back on the huge 4,000 pound fuel bladder to put it in to place on July 9, they were actually leaning forward. 

For the second time in just over two weeks, the fuels Airmen replaced one of the wing's mission-critical fuel bladders early. 

Not early in the day, although they did gather at the crack of dawn to beat the heat, but early in the sense of  "before they were due."

"The fuel bladder's life span is approximately three years," said Master Sgt. Chris Patton, fuels operations section chief. 

Fuel bladders are collapsible fabric fuel tanks, and after 3 years the rubber becomes less effective at retaining the fuel. Over the next year, five of the wing's fourteen fuel bladders will exceed their life span. 

"Since winter operations at Manas involve snow and ice, our rotation (squadron) decided to do the work for the next two rotations," Sergeant Patton said. "What we did...could be considered preventive medicine." 

It's a lot of work to replace a bladder, but that isn't the end of it, according to Sergeant Patton. After the bladder goes through a series of leak tests, it takes about 10 hours to fill it. Fuels Airmen use a large transfer pump that is rated at 600 gallons per minute. The fuel goes through a series of tests to ensure it is not dirty and is ready to use when needed. 

"The fuel is sampled at the distributor by U.S. quality assurance representatives, and sampled by us upon arrival," he said. "After that, the fuel is filtered twice before it hits the bladder, and twice more before it goes into an aircraft, so we don't get dirty fuel." 

All of these processes are important in maintaining adequate fuel stocks and these processes were tested recently when the men and women of the fuels management flight had to meet that demand for fuel when more aircraft than normal were operating on the base.  The flight's Airmen stepped up, however, and beat the old Manas Air Base record of 355,000 gallons for most fuel issued in a single day with a new record of 379,000 gallons.

"We've received a temporary (increase in) aircraft and have also hosted no-notice diverted tankers from other bases, said Col. Roger Thrasher, 376th Expeditionary Mission Support Group commander. "Fuels Airmen do an absolutely fabulous job 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They are a crucial part of the wing mission. We couldn't move a single passenger, one pallet of cargo, or do any aerial refueling without them!" 

The fuels flight rose to the task of refueling all these extra aircraft without missing a beat, said Sergeant Patton. 

"Simply fantastic, this rotation has one of the best groups of Airmen and noncommissioned officers I have ever worked with," he said. "So far there hasn't been anything that has slowed them down. If the equipment is broken, they fix it. And if it's a heavy flying schedule, the aircraft get the fuel to meet take off times." 

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