Fuel shop keeps jets flying

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Matthew Lancaster
  • 51st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
OSAN AIR BASE, Republic of Korea --  Jets from the 25th and 36th Fighter Squadrons soar through the air here at Osan Air Base every day in preparation to defend and maintain stability on the peninsula. Pilots train many hours a day to make sure they are ready at any time to go to battle.

The 51st Logistic Readiness Squadron fuels flight provides fuel to these squadrons. On average, they issue 2 million gallons of fuel a month. The flight has four main areas that contribute directly to the success of jets receiving fuel and getting into the air; the fuels control center, fuels hydrants, fuels laboratory and fuel distribution.

The fuel control center is the brains of the whole fuels operation. They are in charge of all the information needed to operate the rest of the sections of fuels.

"We do all accountability here for everything within our flight," said Senior Airman Brain Nichols, 51st LRS fuels controller. "That means personnel if they have to do a recall for an exercise, all the equipment, the trucks, the radios, the keys for every facility, and also we keep accountability of every gallon of fuel that's issued on this base."

The fuel hydrants section is in charge of the storage and filtration of the fuel.

"We store 3 million gallons of fuel in one tank and will have another tank by December," said Senior Airman Marcus Middlebrooks, 51st LRS fuel hydrants operator. "Once that tank is complete we will be able to hold a total of 6 million gallons of fuel. We also have to make sure the fuel is clean. Our filter separators push 2,400 gallons of fuel a minute to make sure it is free of sediments, dirt and water."

The fuels laboratory performs different tests on fuel samples to ensure the fuel is staying clean before it is pumped into an aircraft.

"We make sure the fuel is good to go and it meets the Air Force standards," said Staff Sgt. Carl Countryman, 51st LRS fuels lab technician. "We are pretty much the gate keeper of the petroleum products. If our samples come back bad then nothing is going to move and the missions on Osan will come to a standstill."

Fuel distribution is the section that gets the fuel to the aircraft.

"We will go out to the aircraft, get our safety briefs to make sure everyone knows what they are doing before we get started, make sure the area is clear and safe, and then issue fuel to the aircraft," said Airman 1st Class Jamie Groseclose, 51st LRS fuels operator. Before we go out with the fuel, we will start with a check point and make sure the trucks are good to go by also taking fuel samples from each truck to make sure there's no contaminates that could get into the planes that could cause something to go wrong."

Not only is the fuels flight the keeper of jet fuel; it is also in charge of the ground fuel that is issued to government vehicles and backup generators.

"So if you've got a government owned vehicle that's getting filled up here we keep accountability of it," said Nichols. "Also we run the vehicle identification link key program, so if you have an issue with not being able to get fuel when you put your electronic key in then you would need to come to us and we will clarify that."

Tech. Sgt. Stephen Jones, 51st LRS NCO in charge of distribution, expressed the importance of the mission the fuels flight provides to the other units on Osan.

"If planes don't get fuel they don't get off the ground," he said.

Each one of these sections work together as a team to make sure the mission at Osan continues to be ready to fly, fight and win when needed.

"Our shop's team work is important in being able to support every different team that's here on base," said Master Sgt. Ian Strain, 51st LRS fuels information service center section chief.