POL Airmen surpass one billion gallons

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Erik Hofmeyer
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFNEWS) --  Senior Airman David Beatty stood patiently on the artificially lighted parking ramp, waiting for more than 22,000 gallons of jet fuel to transfer from the hydrant outlet, through the steel pantograph piping and into the nearby KC-135 Stratotanker.

Unbeknownst to the Airman from the 379th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight, at 9:47 p.m. April 25 he would pump the billionth gallon of jet fuel since the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing's reactivated here in 2002.

Lt. Col. Kristina O'Brien, 379th ELRS commander, Capt. John Klohr, 379th ELRS fuels management flight commander, and Chief Master Sgt. Stanley Walker, 379th ELRS fuels manager, dropped by to congratulate Airman Beatty as he refueled the aircraft.

For Airman Beatty, it was business as usual.

"Everyone else did the work, I was just in the right place at the right time," he said. "To quote Thomas Jefferson, 'I find that the harder I work the more luck I seem to have.'"

"Reaching the billion gallon milestone is an amazing accomplishment, and having issued that much fuel in just six years really highlights the wing's contribution of Air Power to the Global War on Terrorism," Colonel O'Brien said.

Coincidentally, POL Airmen pumped over one million gallons of jet fuel on the same day. It is the largest one-day total ever recorded at the 379th AEW, and only the second time since 2003 the unit surpassed a million gallons pumped in one day.

About 1,000 people have been assigned to the fuels management flight since beginning operations who have helped us reach this milestone, Captain Klohr said.

Ninety percent of the billion gallons came from the expeditionary tactical bladder system, now replaced by a permanent petroleum, oil and lubricant complex. The previous process consisted of filling up 6,000 gallon trucks at the old fill stands, driving out to the aircraft, refueling the aircraft, driving back to the "bladder farm" where fuel is stored in 200,000 gallon plastic tanks, then repeated hundreds of times each day.

Upgraded steel storage tanks, which have replaced the bladder system, feed 23 hydrant outlets located on parking spots on the refueling ramps. The "hydrant pits" contain hydrant outlets concealed in strategically placed hatches on the refueling ramp. They allow fuels technicians to expedite the refueling of wide bodied aircraft by not having to use multiple truck operations that require many trips to the fuel stands for refueling.

"It took six years to reach one billion, but at our current demand rate we will reach another billion in about half the time," said Captain Klohr. "It would normally take a large home station base 13 years to reach one billion gallons using permanent facilities under ideal conditions."

"Reaching the milestone in half the time of a normal base, while using an expeditionary system, is a testament to the hard work and dedication by the 1,000-plus people who've been assigned to the flight," Captain Klohr said.

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