Airmen serving at Army refueling point

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Debbie Aragon
  • 407th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs
TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) --  With rotors spinning at 1,600 revolutions per minute above his head, the Airman grips the fuel hose draped over his shoulder and pushes forward through the dust and sand. Time is everything in this environment and he knows it.

The mission he has been tasked to do is not something he had ever dreamed he would be doing, but it is something the Air Force has asked him to do and he has stepped up to the plate. He and 15 other Airmen are assigned to the U.S. Army’s 439th Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant Forward-Area Refueling Point here.

“It’s an adrenaline rush,” said Staff Sgt. Rocky Johnston of his job here to refuel aircraft while their engines are still running. He service American as well as coalition helicopters within this area of responsibility.

“If there (are helicopters) going from Kuwait to Baghdad, from Baghdad to wherever, if they pass through our airspace and they need fuel, they can drop in and we top off their fuel so they can do the mission,” said Tech. Sgt. Michael Huntoon, the refueling point’s noncommissioned officer in charge and an air boss.

The location has four fueling points. There are times when all four are occupied by helicopters, Sergeant Huntoon said. These include AH-64 Apaches, CH-47 Chinooks, UH-60 Black Hawks or OH-58 Scouts.

When an aircrew radios in for fuel, everyone gets up and runs, Sergeant Huntoon said of his Air Force team. At a minimum, two people are needed to refuel one helicopter -- one remains at the pump while the other carries the fuel hose to the aircraft.

“When the aircraft [crews] call in, you never know if they’re going on an actual hot mission so you always want to get out there and get them off the ground right away,” Sergeant Johnston said.

In the back of his head, the staff sergeant said he is always thinking, “this could be the real deal.”

“They could be going out to help a convoy that’s being attacked or they’re going up to help someone who’s been hurt. It’s a rush because you want to really get out there and refuel them fast,” he said.

By “hot refueling” aircraft, the helicopter ground time is cut significantly, according to Sergeant Huntoon. “Hot refueling“ means filling the fuel tanks with the engines still running.

“The average time on the ground is about two to five minutes; that includes the 30 seconds it takes for us to respond once we get the call,” he said.

“At home station, aircraft will land, the pilots call the maintenance operations center and the controllers direct us where we need to go to fuel them. Here, pilots call us directly and the air boss guides them to where we want them to be,” Sergeant Huntoon said.

“It’s kind of nice to direct flightline ops instead of the other way around,” Sergeant Johnston said. “It’s been a big shift because as air boss I’m in control of what’s happening out there.”

To prepare for this deployment, all 16 Airmen attended special training in Kuwait with the Army.

“It was 100-percent different than what the Air Force would have done,” Sergeant Huntoon said, and included convoy live-fire training.

“We fired more rounds in training with the Army than most Air Force people fire in their entire careers,” Sergeant Johnston said.

“It was a real field version of survive to operate,” Sergeant Huntoon said. “These are the guys who are out in the field on the convoys … they train hard because they train to be able to live.

“Although our normal Air Force deployment may be in a forward location like Tallil, it’s our pilots who are the ones going up to do the fighting,” the technical sergeant said. “With the Army, it’s them … they’re the ones putting the bullets in the air.”

“All of our training, from basic training to exercises at home station to the training we received in Kuwait, prepared us for this; to operate in this type of an environment,” Sergeant Johnston said.

“We just have a strong desire to do the job,” Sergeant Huntoon said. “Put it in front of us and we’ll get the job done … we adapt to anything.”