Fuels Airmen ‘top off’ mission

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Gino Mattorano
  • 380th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) --  A key part of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing’s mission is providing aerial refueling capabilities for the war on terrorism. For tankers, or any other aircraft, to get off the ground, they rely on the Air Force’s expeditionary fuel distribution center at a forward-deployed location.

The 380th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron’s fuels flight is divided into two main areas of operations -- fuel distribution and fuel storage.

Airmen in the fuel storage element receive and store as much as 400,000 gallons of aviation fuel for the wing’s KC-10 Extenders and KC-135 Stratotankers. The aircraft, in turn, supply fighters and bombers in the area on a daily basis, said Tech. Sgt. Anthony Tarallo, the noncommissioned officer in charge of the bladder farm.

At a permanent base, permanent storage tanks house large quantities of fuel, but at a deployed location, the Airmen use fuel bladders to hold the base’s fuel supply. These bladders require constant maintenance and care to prevent ruptures or other spills.

“We perform daily inspections of the bags to make sure they’re not leaking, and we ensure that adequate fuel levels are maintained to meet the needs of the mission,” Sergeant Tarallo said.

In one month, 15 bladders ruptured, which led the newly assigned fuels Airmen to put together a “Bladder Response Team” trained to quickly react to a bladder rupture to prevent fuel loss and environmental contamination.

“We can rapidly transfer fuel from one storage area to another fuel bladder in the event of a spill,” he said. “The fuel storage area is built to contain spills, and our bladder response teams are trained to quickly clean up and recover fuel from a rupture.”

Powerful pumps and fuel filters quickly recover the fuel, and ensure it is ready to be distributed to customers, Sergeant Tarallo said.

The distribution center Airmen are responsible for delivering fuel to customers. This is done in fuel trucks. At the heart of the distribution center is the control center. Control center Airmen work closely with aircraft maintainers to quickly distribute fuel to aircraft. They also are responsible for fuel accountability and equipment maintenance.

It can take as many as five trucks to refuel a KC-135, so drivers work around the clock to keep the tanker force flying, said Staff Sgt. Garrett Jones, a fuels resource controller.

“We distribute fuel for all the aircraft we have here, plus we’re also responsible for refueling vehicles and [aerospace ground equipment],” Sergeant Jones said. “When the (base) service station is closed, we refuel other vehicles also.”

To maintain that pace, the drivers typically spend their days driving from the shop to refuel an aircraft, then back to the shop to refuel their truck, and right back out to an aircraft, Sergeant Jones said.

Despite the hard work and long hours, the fuels maintenance Airmen said they are proud of the contributions they make to the wing’s mission.

“We help deliver fuel to aircraft dropping bombs on targets,” said Airman 1st Class Holly Cather, a fuel truck driver. “I like knowing that what we do every day contributes to the overall war effort.”