POL fuels U.S., Iraqi forces in Baghdad

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Alyssa C. Miles
  • U.S. Air Forces Central Public Affairs
SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq --  The 447th Expeditionary Logistic Readiness Squadron's Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant Flight receives, issues, stores and performs quality control on aviation and ground fuels, and provides high quality, clean, dry fuel to not only 10 Army forward operating bases throughout Iraq, but also the Iraqi air force. 

The 13-man shop is broken into seven divisions. A few of the major ones include: storage, refueling maintenance, distribution, a laboratory and a resource control center. The team provides more than 1 million gallons of fuel to aircraft here and about 800,000 gallons to tanks and generators every month. 

According to Master Sgt. Adrian Garner, 447th ELRS fuels manager from Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, the POL Airman's job is not merely driving the big, green trucks that are used for refueling. 

"Many people do not understand what we do here," Sergeant Garner, a Nacogdoches, Texas native, said. "They don't realize that we do a lot more than ensure that the fuel arrives on time." 

POL is responsible for providing fuel needed to run the base power plant and back-up generators, so every time someone here turns on a light, washes their clothes or even works out at the gym, POL played a major role in making that happen, he said.
His co-worker agrees. 

"There would not be a mission without POL," said Tech. Sgt. Rocky Sasse, 447th ELRS noncommissioned officer in charge of fuel operations, deployed from McConnell AFB, Kan. "It is amazing to see the reaction of people when they come through POL for the first time and see everything that actually goes into every mission."
In addition to their day-to-day duties, POL Airmen also assist the Iraqi air force with any fuel related issues they may have. 

Sergeant Sasse, who hails from Milton, Fla., says POL is in the beginning stages of helping the Iraqis set-up their own fuel farm. 

"We are helping them set up their 20,000 gallon diesel bag," Sgt. Sasse said. "This will allow them to store their ground fuels to support their own base generators and infrastructure." 

Additionally, POL conducts training to ensure the Iraqi force is capable of running this mission on its own in the near future. 

"I work with the Iraqi air force on a weekly basis," said Senior Airman David Britt, 447th ELRS fuels lab technician deployed from McConnell AFB, Kan. "I show them the proper way to take fuel samples so they can ensure their fuel meets all requirements and maintain the guidelines put in place to keep their planes flying with good quality fuel." 

The Enterprise, Ala., native says when he arrived at Sather, receiving a fuel sample from an Iraqi pump was not an easy task. 

"We had to climb on tanks and take the sample, which was a big safety issue," Airman Britt explained. 

To overcome this obstacle, the POL team brainstormed and came up with the idea to build an adaptor. After leadership collected the items needed to construct the apparatus, Airman Britt and two members of his team went to work building the piece. One week and $8,000 later, the project, dubbed Frankenstein, was alive. 

"Frankenstein was very beneficial because it cut down the need to climb on top of the tank to pull the samples and it also gives us the tool that was needed to conduct the most accurate filter separator testing," Airman Britt said. "Also, Frankenstein gives the Iraqis an on-the-spot analysis of their fuel quality. It would take hours without it." 

With every gallon of fuel POL Airmen help the Iraqis test or distribute, they come one step closer to being fully operational without assistance. 

According to Sergeant Garner, the Iraqi troops are on track to independently run their fuel operations in the near future.