Million Gallon Club: Seven POL Airmen reach milestone

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Michael O'Connor
  • 31st Fighter Wing Public Affairs
AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy --  Seven Airmen from the 31st Logistics Readiness Squadron petroleum, oil and lubricants flight here recently became members of the 'Million Gallon Club' during their first 60 days while deployed to the 376th Expeditionary LRS at the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan.

In addition to their individual milestones, the Airmen and nine others from the 31st LRS were a part of their deployed POL flight, which broke their deployed location's previous refueling record of most gas pumped in a month by 24,000 gallons.

Overall, the POL team accomplished more than 1,200 runs in June 2009, successfully refueling aircraft supporting operations in Afghanistan with more than 10 million gallons of fuel. The previous refueling milestone was set in August 2008. Four Airmen from other bases, also deployed to the 376th ELRS, hit the million-mark during this timeframe.

"Everybody worked together as a team," said Senior Master Sgt. Jeffrey Hancock, 376th ELRS fuels superintendent, deployed from Aviano Air Base, Italy. "We definitely worked hard. We were on the flightline most of the day; some of these guys even ate their lunches in the fuel trucks, and we were transporting fuel from the [fuel] bladders to the planes all day long. That's what made the difference ... everybody having patience, teamwork and sticking together."

Sergeant Hancock said the one noticeable difference between his current POL team and the team who set the record back in August 2008, is his team did it with eight fewer team members. Another important fact that makes their achievements stand out even more is all the fuel was delivered by truck.

On average, the team pumps more than 300,000 gallons of jet fuel a day to aircraft flying in and out of the area of responsibility, said Sergeant Hancock. Whether they're coalition, transient tankers or Manas-based air-refueling aircraft, the team here keeps them flying around the clock.
 
In the POL world, an Airman at an Air Mobility Command base refueling heavy aircraft can reach this individual milestone in fewer than three years, whereas Airmen from Aviano AB who primarily refuel F-16s during a three to four-year tour will not.

MILLION GALLON CLUB

Senior Airmen Andy Smith, Zachery Petri, Christopher Howard and Benjamin Hoffman, and Airmen 1st Class Joshua Crain, Jackie Mejia and William Brinegar, all deployed from the 31st LRS POL flight, are seven of the 10 distribution operators to reach this achievement during the team's 120-day rotation to the theatre thus far. As of July 29, 2009, the nine other POL Airmen deployed from Aviano have pumped more than a million gallons combined.

"We are extremely proud of the accomplishments achieved by members of our LRS Family while deployed to Manas," said Lt. Col. Steven Martinez, 31st LRS commander. "These POL warriors demonstrate that the level of excellence we expect daily at Aviano translates to outstanding logistics support to the joint war fight. A key component of our mission is to provide combat-ready logistics Airmen. It is a tremendous honor to know we are doing just that!" he exclaimed.

Editor's note: Staff Sgt. Olufemi Owolabi, 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs contributed to this article. To go to the 376th AEW public site, click here.