Fueling the fight, 354th LRS POL flight keeps aircraft in the air 24/7

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Kyle Johnson
  • 354th Fighter Wing
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE-Alaska --  There's an old saying that troops march on their stomach, so it's no surprise that aircraft fly on their fuel tanks.

The 354th Logistics Readiness Squadron's, petroleum, oil, and lubrication flight knows this very well. That knowledge fuels Airmen's motivation to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, to ensure Eielson and its visitors' aircraft are fully operational for whatever their mission requires.

"Without POL, pilots are just pedestrians," said Senior Airman William Hunter, a fuels expediter for the POL flight here.  "If you've got a government vehicle, you get your gas from us."

POL fuels more than vehicles though; they ensure all the generators around base have enough gas to keep mission-critical buildings operational in the event of a power outage.

Additionally, it is their cryogenics, like liquid nitrogen and liquid oxygen, that are used at the medical squadrons every day, ensuring Airmen and their families are ready to do their part of the mission.

But when RED FLAG-Alaska comes around, POL goes full-throttle.

The time standard for refueling aircraft after they land from a mission is 30 minutes, but by staging its trucks beforehand, Eielson POL is able to get fuel trucks to aircraft in less than two.

"On the flightline, we primarily deal with closed-system refueling, which means the fuel is never exposed to air between truck and aircraft," Hunter said.

By never letting the fuel leave the closed systems, POL is able to perform their flightline operations while minimizing risk to its Airmen, the people around them and their environment.

"We are a very small flight, so to take care of 80 to 100 aircraft generations a day is very hard when you only have four or five people driving a truck," Hunter explained.

With the fighters holding up to 3,500 gallons of fuel and the refuelers carrying upwards of 30,000 gallons, 80-100 aircraft means hundreds of thousands of gallons of gas.

"Without these temporary duty guys it would be almost impossible for us to maintain the mission for RED FLAG," Hunter said.

RF-A also provides the opportunity for POL Airmen to refuel aircraft from other nations.

"Working with the foreign nationals is an experience that can be challenging; the language barrier is definitely rough," Hunter said. "Once you get over that, you can meet some really great people."

RF-A aims to be as realistic as possible, meaning it is heavily dependent on the team mentality. An exercise as far-reaching as this doesn't happen on one person, or one unit's back, it requires the seamless integration of many different structures to ensure mission success.

"Everybody's got their slogans as to why they're the best," Hunter said. "We like to poke fun at each other, but all in all everyone has to do their part to make the mission happen.
We're all working to get the job done."