18th LRS Fuels Management Flight awarded back-to-back recognition

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Kenya Shiloh
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  When the 18th Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight won the 2005 Raymond H. Gross Award for Best Fuels Management Operation in Pacific Air Forces, they tried to think of ways to improve their already exceptional program. They found a way when they won the award for the second year in a row, making them the only fuels management flight to accomplish this feat in PACAF history. 

"We finished second in the Air Force American Petroleum Institute competition last year," said Senior Master Sgt. Rickie Stone, 18th LRS flight chief. "That just charged us up to do better this year. It's quite prestigious to say we finished in the top three. There were 103 fuels accounts in the Air Force, so coming in second last year was quite an accomplishment." 

With more than 120 Airmen assigned to the squadron and more than 11 sections to operate, they supported nearly 30,000 sorties over the past year. They also supplied more than 140,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen and oxygen to aircraft and medical clinics throughout Okinawa. With two operational fuels management cells on the north and south sides of the flight line operating on a 24/7 cycle, members of the flight were able to decrease their fuels service to an 11-minute response time. 

"Meeting current deployment needs and still be able to meet customers' expectations is our biggest challenge," Sergeant Stone said. "On average, the unit completes 26,000 aircraft services per year with an average 14-minute response time. That response time is quite an achievement." 

The unit also processed 18.2 million gallons of Jet Propulsion-8 fuel to 6,000 transient aircraft to include Marine Wing Liaison units and Japan Air Self-Defense Forces aircraft. They performed HH-60 Pave Hawk "hot gas" refuels for the 33rd Rescue Squadron who were tasked for real-world rescue missions. Squadron members also coordinated $950,000 in ground fuel tank upgrades to improve the refueling proceedures. 

"We're trying to conduct innovative management practices," Sergeant Stone said. "There's such a big push on the AFSO 21 program. We look at how many people we have to work with and try to streamline processes to where we work smarter not harder and still maintain the flight's goals. We have levels and expectations that we put on ourselves to meet each year." 

The unit strives to comply with environmental standards. They conducted semi-annual inspections, validated site-specific spill plans for fuel spill prevention and containment procedures and improved their fuel-spill report by streamlining fuels mishap procedures. 

Sergeant Stone said everything the unit does is in an effort to support contingency operations or deployment taskings and the unit supports that contingency by refueling aircraft and keeping them in the fight. 

"Each year, we try to work above the standard and ask ourselves how we can improve the current processes," Sergeant Stone said. "We look at trying to improve our manning practices and build that continuity for those who will fill our shoes when we're gone." 

Since the unit's resource control center didn't support their needs, unit members took on a self-help project to upgrade the appearance of the center. 

"We had a lot of self-help projects in the unit this year," said Master Sgt. Marc LaMontagne, 18th LRS operations chief. "We have someone in the unit who does construction as a hobby and he was able to get cabinetry items and install them in the renovated control center. We were also able to level the floor and redo the walls as well as upgrade the air conditioning system." 

All these advances and improvements led to the back-to-back successes for the unit. 

"As a manager seeing my people rewarded for their hard work is the most rewarding part of the job for me," Sergeant Stone said. 

"It doesn't matter if they receive a letter of appreciation from transient alert or being able to go through a sortie surge and hear that POL was spot-on with their response. In other words, we were there every time and before they ask to provide support."