Fueling the fight from the Atlantic

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Chyrece Campbell
  • 65th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
LAJES FIELD, Portugal --  The Air Force mission to fly, fight and win cannot be accomplished without gas.

At Lajes Field, the main mission is to fuel aircraft as they transit over the Atlantic Ocean. Approximately 7,000 aircraft land and receive 5.4 million gallons of fuel every year which is supplied by of the 65th Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels management flight.

But there is more to the 65th LRS mission than the fuels dispatch personnel who fuel the aircraft. At first glance, the distribution and accounting shops seem like just another Air Force "desk job." However, these shops are accounting for more than 35 million gallons of fuel worth $134 million, which is the largest fuel supply in the United States Air Forces in Europe and the second largest in the Air Force.

Within the fuels management flight, there are nine different and distinct shops, one of which is the cryogenics shop.

"Most people don't know that LRS supplies liquid oxygen to aircrafts," said Tech. Sgt. Gwendoline Berrones, fuel information service center section chief.

The cryogenics shop maintains liquid oxygen and is in charge of ensuring that only quality aviator breathing oxygen is provided to the crew.

"My job here is important because it is up to our shop to make sure that the fuel the aircraft is getting doesn't have any problems and is the proper grade," said Victor Almeida, fuels lab technician.

The fuel laboratory runs tests on all the fuel received. This shop also conducts weekly and monthly inspections on all stored fuel to ensure it hasn't been contaminated and remains within quality control. Checking for water and particle content is just a couple of the tests the lab technicians run.

"We make sure the fuel is clean and dry," said Mr. Jaime Silva, fuels lab technician. "I have been working in the lab for 18 years and our shop has a great responsibility to provide the best service because if the fuel is not top notch and there is something wrong, the problem can't be fixed once the plane is in the air."

Despite the fact that aircraft are not fueled every day, the preventative and refueling maintenance shops have to perform refueling checks on fuel trucks daily for maintenance issues, damage, corrosion and serviceability. If a vehicle is taken out of service for any reason, the refueling maintenance shop diligently works to get it back into operational standards. The fuel fleet must not drop below the mission essential levels.

"I love my job because of the physical aspects," said Staff Sgt. Jason Swanson, refueling maintenance supervisor. "If the maintainers were not here to keep the trucks serviceable, transit aircraft would have to refuel in the air."