8th ESB Marines assist Systems Command in new equipment testing
US Marine Corps News
10/6/2010
By Cpl. Bobbie A. Curtis, 2nd Marine Logistics Group
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C -- Marines from 8th Engineer Support Battalion, Combat Logistics Regiment 25, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, supported Marine Forces Systems Command’s testing of new fuel analysis equipment, at Camp Lejeune, over the last week.
The focus of the test was operator validation and verification of the technical manual for the Petroleum Quality Analysis System - Enhanced, a fuel testing medium that the Marine Corps hopes to field as a replacement for their older system, the Tactical Petroleum Laboratory - Medium.
The testing occurred in one of 8th ESB’s lots where they provided logistical support while two lab technicians with Marine Wing Support Squadron 272, from Marine Corps Air Station, New River, N.C., conducted the step-by-step review of the Army’s pre-existing technical manual, to better tailor it to service in the Marine Corps.
Michael E. Brown, the fuel systems logistician from Marine Forces Systems Command, explained that the Army already uses the PQAS-E and that the Marine Corps intends to field a variant of the system as a more improved means for testing fuel.
“The reason why we’re going to the Army variant is because refurbishing the TPL-M is not cost effective … it cost more to refurbish it than it does to go ahead and buy the PQAS-E,” said Brown.
The Marine Corps version is housed in an ISO container that is transported by a truck, the Army system is kept on the back of a portable trailer.
According to Sgt. Michael McKenzie, a bulk fuel specialist and lab technician testing the equipment, the system has an overall better feel to it than the TPL-M.
“It’s a great piece of equipment,” he said. “It’s better because it caters to the lab tech a lot more, there’s more room, and it’s climate controlled so you get a better reading on your fuel.”
The system has a central computer that records reading from all its test equipment. This Integrated Management System allows storage of all test readings acquired in the lab. When a tech is finished testing a fuel batch, all he has to do is use the labs onboard printer to make a single data sheet with all the test information.
“The machines don’t lie,” McKenzie added.
He explained that if something should go wrong with an aircraft or other vehicle using the fuel, the test results will prevent blame from being put on a lab tech who found the fuel to be usable.
“Its failsafe,” he said. “It protects the person doing the sample … ultimately if something goes wrong, it’s on us.”
Marine Forces Systems Command hopes to field the unit by fourth quarter 2011.
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