Keeping RF-A pumped up

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Rachelle Coleman
  • 354th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  Before any aircraft, large or small, can take off into the skies and fly various combat sorties over the 67,000 square miles of the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range Complex, they must have fuel.

The 354th Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight, along with the help of additional Airmen, make sure that every aircraft on-station, foreign or domestic, is fueled and ready to go during RED FLAG-Alaska exercises.

During the most recent iteration of the exercise, about 150 sorties were flown using an average of 350,000 gallons of fuel a day. By the end of the exercise, an estimated four million gallons was used.

The fuels flight is responsible for issuing of jet fuel to all flying jets within 30 minutes of receiving the call for fuel. The fuels flight depends on 17 temporary duty members from other Air Force bases that are participating in RED FLAG to augment the influx of fuel demands, and 99 percent of their time is spent helping the distribution section, making sure the 30 minute deadline is met.

"Everyone is used extensively during RED FLAG," said Master Sgt. Scott Roe, 354th LRS Fuels Operations Section Chief. "There's no way we could recover all of the aircraft without the additional personnel. The average time it takes us to recover an aircraft is 10 minutes, which is quite impressive with the amount of sorties."

Refueling an aircraft takes a bit of coordination and communication, six sections make sure enough quality fuel is not just available, but also quickly distributed.

"Everyone always talks about how this exercise is used to train pilots but it's also great training for the Fuels Flight," said Sergeant Roe. "The RED FLAG ops tempo is similar to the everyday tempo in a deployed environment."

To help make the process more efficient, the Fuels Flight has developed a process that keeps the lines of communication clear and brief.

The control center receives all calls for fuel, processes that information and directs Airmen to the location of the aircraft. The control center uses expediters on both ends of the runway to ensure that Airmen are not only performing the job quickly, but safely.

Working with both American and foreign aircraft seems like it would create some confusion, but the basics are very similar.

"We've run into situations where they're [foreign military] a little more metric but a lot of the operations are the same," said Tech. Sgt. James Tritle, 354th LRS Fuels Facilities NCOIC.

In addition to fuel, the fuels flight is also responsible for distributing ground fuel, liquid oxygen, and liquid nitrogen.

With the multiple roles that fuels is responsible for, RF-A is instrumental for ensuring they are prepared for any AEF task and keeping all aircraft on-station ready for action.