Airmen form tight-knit team that fuels fight Published June 8, 2005 By Master Sgt. Rich Romero 40th Air Expeditionary Group Public Affairs OPERATION ENDURING FREEDOM (AFPN) -- Nobody bats an eye when an Airman in the petroleum, oil and lubrication shop passes gas roughly three or four times daily because it is absolutely essential.Without the 17 Airmen in the shop, the aircraft at this forward-deployed location do not get off the ground.“Pilots are pedestrians without POL,” said Staff Sgt. Kevin Capach, a fuels distribution craftsman with the 40th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Flight.The entire shop is deployed from Minot Air Force Base, N.D. Between deployments and home station, this crew works together exclusively pumping gas and filling liquid oxygen tanks on various aircraft and aerospace ground equipment eight months out of the year. The other four months they work with another team at home station.“Being able to work and deploy as a team is a huge benefit,” Sergeant Capach said. “Deploying to a POL shop with people from other bases takes time to get to know their work habits. We don’t have to worry about that because we know each other extremely well.”“We do the exact same job here as back home, but with (few) people,” said Airman 1st Class Stacie Reichel, a fuels distribution apprentice on her first deployment. “It’s important, then, not to have to be concerned with personality conflicts and different work habits. We jell together well and keep very busy.”During a typical day, the Airmen pump 166,000 gallons of fuel and 95 gallons of liquid oxygen. They run three different types of fuel trucks to support the various aircraft and aerospace ground equipment deployed here. Their tanks have the capacity to hold 4.1 million gallons of aircraft fuel and 4,000 gallons of liquid oxygen.Unlike most deployed people, the shop’s Airmen actually have it better off here than at home station because they are located mere yards from the aircraft parking ramp. Because of various safety requirements at home station, the shop is located miles from the aircraft they support.“We have a required response time when the call comes in to fuel or defuel,” Airman Reichel said. “Being so close to the flightline really speeds up our response time. We also don’t have to wait so long if we need … assistance.”Nonetheless, they get the job done. It takes about an hour to pump the 20,000 to 24,000 gallons of fuel into an aircraft. “We’re a tight-knit family,” said Master Sgt. Michael Garrett, POL superintendent. “We eat our own, but we also take care of our own.”