KC-135 team keeps fuel flowing down range

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. William J. Seabrook Jr.
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan (AFPN) --  One of the key missions of the 376th Air Expeditionary Wing here is providing fuel to the fighters and bombers supporting coalition warfighters in Afghanistan.

This means the KC-135 Stratotanker operators and maintainers from Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., and MacDill AFB, Fla., must keep their 40- to 50-year-old jets ready to fly 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The airmen assigned to the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron have flown more than 10,750 combat and combat-support hours and have delivered more than 60,000 tons of fuel since the base was established in 2001.

“What makes these facts extraordinary is the combination of the age of the jets and the fact they must (be) ready (to) fly at any time,” said Lt. Col. Joe Dague, 22nd EARS commander. “We don’t really have a set flying schedule -- when the call comes, we need to be ready to go.”

While the colonel said he is proud of the accomplishments of his crews, he realizes it would not be possible to log such hours without the efforts of the maintainers from the 376th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron’s KC-135 section.

“Those (maintainers) are just magicians with what they do here, considering the resources they have available,” he said. “At one point this year, they actually went more than 40 days without a maintenance-related delay -- just incredible.”

The maintainers also see the value of teamwork in this environment.

“We work much more as a team here than at home station, and it makes a big difference,” said Senior Airman Mike Senay, 376th AMXS crew chief. “Since we’re smaller here and work with the same people over and over, it helps diagnosing problems and ultimately keeping the jets flying.”

Everyone in this team understands the importance of keeping the jets flying, Airman Senay said.

“If I don’t do my job correctly then the mission doesn’t get accomplished -- it’s as simple as that,” he said. “There’s nothing more satisfying than working a 12-hour shift on an aircraft and then watching that plane take off on time at the end of the day.”

“The bottom-line goal is to get the jets down range to the warfighters, and we couldn’t do that without (every) single person here working together,” said Capt. Chad Lynch, 22nd EARS director of operations.