Discovery Channel show visits McConnell 'Dirty Jobs' crew

  • Published
  • By Capt. Brus E. Vidal
  • 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. (AFPN) --  “It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.”

That’s a cliché jokingly thrown around in everyday life.

But a team of 22nd Maintenance Group Airmen tackle their “dirty job” with such aplomb, the Discovery Channel show “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe” taped an episode about the Airmen here Nov. 21 and 22.

A Dirty Jobs episode about McConnell’s fuel cell maintainers will air on the Discovery Channel during the show’s next season, which begins in February.

The show “profiles the unsung American laborers who make their living in the most unthinkable –- yet vital -– ways,” said Mr. Rowe, the show’s star and host.

It features hardworking groups of men and women -- like the McConnell fuel cell maintainers -- who overcome fear, danger and sometimes stench and overall dirtiness to accomplish their daily tasks, he said.

Mr. Rowe assumes the duties of the jobs he's profiling. Before becoming an Airman for his two day visit here, worked alongside rattlesnake catchers, fish processors, bee removers, septic-tank technicians and other Dirty Jobs professionals.

After visiting the 22nd Medical Group’s bioenvironmental engineering flight to go through a respirator fit test, Mr. Rowe received intensive confined space training, tank familiarization and self-rescue procedures, among other training.

An ominous “Open Fuel Tanks: Unauthorized Personnel Keep Out” sign greeted Mr. Rowe and the Dirty Jobs crew as they arrived at the maintenance hangar to work on one of McConnell’s KC-135 Stratotankers.

He helped the fuel cell maintainers checking every tool in the inventory to make sure all pieces were in place. Then he changed into blue static-free coveralls and a full-face air respirator.

Then, it was time for some “tank diving.”

“We enter a fuel tank through an access door 11 inches wide by 16 inches long. Don’t think for a second this is a pleasant place to be,” said Staff Sergeant Aaron Dickey, an aircraft fuel system repair craftsman. “It’s dark, humid and fuel is dripping from nearly every component in the tank.

“By the time you come out of the tank, you are normally covered in fuel and your hands smell of something I can’t even describe,” he said.

Mr. Rowe got the unique opportunity to “wear” the jet fuel (JP-8) odor, which he took back with him to his hotel in the evening -- not unlike the fuel cell maintainers who take it home with them daily.

“If you’re lucky, your significant other might let you in the house with your clothes on. Mostly, you wind up standing on the back porch in your underwear awaiting a fresh change of clothes just so you can get to the shower,” Sergeant Dickey said.

Smelly clothing is only one job hazard. Most of the places the fuel cell maintainers work in permit little to no movement. Skin contact with the fuel is inevitable.

“When fuel gets in your clothes and you can’t take them off for long periods of time, it irritates the skin,” Sergeant Dickey said. “We call this fuel burn. It feels like you’ve roughly combed your skin with a fine tooth comb.”

Mr. Rowe also experienced this feeling, which normally lasts for a few days and ends when large portions of one’s skin peel off.

Another portion of the job Mr. Rowe took part in was removing the manifolds, plumbing and pumps from inside a leaky fuel cell bladder, which is basically a 50-80 pound rubber bag that holds the fuel. Duct tape is placed on the floor to locate the leaks. When JP-8 comes in contact with the duct tape, it separates the backing from the adhesive layer and creates a “goo.”

“This goo is what we call ‘activation,’ and it can only be cleaned or removed by methyl ethyl ketone,” said Staff Sgt. Michele Lindstrom, an aircraft fuel system repair craftsman. “The cell is tied down by parachute cord to the aircraft and we sandwich ourselves between the cell and the aircraft skin in order to unlace it and remove it from the cell cavity.”

As Mr. Rowe found out, the duct tape actually sticks to hair and body better than on the jet after it is activated.

After peeling the duct tape out of his hair, Mr. Rowe called it a day. But he recovered in time to fly on a KC-135 refueling mission the next day.

Col. Cathy C. Clothier, the 22nd Air Refueling Wing commander, flew the mission, Turbo 01. Mr. Rowe witnessed Turbo 01 passing fuel to one of McConnell’s KC-135s and a B-52 Stratofortress from Barksdale AFB, La.

Some of Mr. Rowe’s previous Dirty Jobs included cleaning up toxic bird poop, diving for golf balls in alligator-infested waters, serving slop to pigs and removing bones from fish. But his hands-on stint as a fuel cell maintainer helped him gain a new understanding and appreciation for the unpleasant functions these Airmen perform to make McConnell’s aerial refueling mission happen.

“Getting into a KC-135R fuel cell is a bit like threading a needle with a sausage,” Mr. Rowe said. “I’ve been in tight places before, but nothing quite this tight, or sharp, or smelly, or weird.

“The Airmen, who do it, day in and day out have my utmost respect -- but not one shred of my envy!” he said.

After all, it’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it.