Military

RHEIN-MAIN AIR BASE, Germany (USAFENS) -- They pumped enough fuel in February to fill the tanks of more than 750,000 automobiles. In January their output would have satisfied another 725,000 motorists. Too bad cars don't run on jet fuel.

The most common customers for the JP-8 fuel pumped by the Pacific Architects and Engineers contract fuels section here are C-17 Globemaster III aircraft, which can guzzle more than 20,000 gallons in a single fueling.

The job of keeping these behemoths gassed and ready to go falls on the shoulders of 15 civilians under the direction of Johnnie Epps, PAE fuels manager, and 23 military members deployed here, currently under the supervision of Master Sgt. David Applas, 193rd Special Operations Wing, Pennsylvania Air National Guard.

As with many other operations here, the fuels section's pace began to pick up shortly after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, and hit it's high-water mark at the beginning of 2003, during the build-up of forces in Southwest Asia. The section set their single-day fueling record Mar. 17 with 610,747 gallons pumped, only to see it eclipsed the following day by a new standard of 628,711 gallons.

The two-month total for January and February topped out at more than 22,000,000 gallons. To put this amount in perspective, the 48th Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight, the best in U.S. Air Forces in Europe for 2002, pumped 30,000,000 gallons in a year.

Applas humbly compares these numbers to the output of his home unit in Harrisburg, Penn.

"We average about 1.6 million gallons a year," he said.

While the mechanics of refueling are the same for the members deployed from across the United States and Germany, the amount of work and staggering numbers are far from the norm. Military members have been working 12-hours shifts for several months, with little relief in sight.

"There are days when the guys in the trucks don't even see the inside of the office," said Tech. Sgt. Richard Wade, deployed from McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. "As soon as they return to the yard, they refuel and head back out."

The airmen head out in the unit's 17 R-11 fuel trucks, each with a maximum capacity of 6,000 gallons. Airmen have 30 minutes from the time an order for fuel is received to be at the aircraft.

In the first two months of 2003, drivers made more than 4,000 trips to the flight line, with an average round-trip taking 45 minutes. Fuels specialist do have another option, the pantograph hydrant system, which allows refueling from large storage tanks, reducing manpower from four or five truck drivers to two specialists manning the pantograph system.

Applas, who has 20 years experience in fuels, admits the blend of airmen and civilians is a unique environment for the fuels community. Nonetheless, the two groups work well together, according to Epps.

"We all know what we have to do to get the job done," he said. "Everyone comes in fully trained and they hit the ground running."

The operation hasn't always flowed as smooth as the JP-8 though, according to Epps.

When PAE took over the section in October 1999, it was as caretaker of the fuels storage area and equipment. Refueling of the scant number of aircraft arriving at Rhein-Main then was done by suppliers from the Frankfurt International Airport.

In February of 2000 the contract was modified to allow PAE technicians to refuel aircraft, but only from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aircraft needing fuel outside this time window were supplied by the civilian airport, which still accounts for one-third of the total refueling effort on base.

In November 2001, when Operation Enduring Freedom flights began staging from Rhein-Main, the overwhelming number of aircraft forced officials to begin augmenting PAE with deployed military members.

Since the beginning of February, the section has also relied on Flughafen (Frankfurt airport) refuelers, who handled nearly 25 percent of the month's total.

Under current operations, PAE technicians are responsible for the receipt and storage of JP-8, quality control, accounting and refueling and scheduling maintenance of vehicles.

"They're the backbone of this operation," said Applas.

Deployed military members accomplish the tasks of manning the resource control center and delivery of fuel to the flightline.

Several of the PAE technicians have prior military experience and appreciate the chance to play such an important role in world events.

"This is a real-live mission," said Chester Williams, a PAE operations supervisor who's been at Rhein-Main for nine years. "You have to enjoy doing this though - it's tedious and not always clean.

"But when you see such enthusiasm from people like Master Sergeant Applas and Mister Epps,  you can't help but to love this," he added. "If we drop the ball they're always there to pick it up."

The morale of the military members is a little harder to gauge, according to Applas.

"The guys have been so busy I don't think they've had time to complain," he said.   

-- USAFENS --