Air refueling enables 24-hour ops in SWA

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Mark R.W. Orders-Woempner
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA (ACCNS) --  Fighters are in the air 24 hours a day, providing constant support to ground forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; but, without midair refueling, that coverage would be lost.

The 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron provides the necessary fuel to those thirsty fighters as they keep troops on the ground safe, said Lt. Col. Brou Gautier, 340th EARS commander.

“Our mission is simply to refuel the various aircraft supporting coalition ground forces,” stated Colonel Gautier. “The fuel we provide to the close air support team increases loiter times, which in turn, allows a smaller force to be more effective over a longer period of time.”

Refueling the fighters is crucial to the Global War on Terrorism because of what they bring to the fight, said the colonel, who commands the largest KC-135 squadron in the Air Force.

“The air-refueling concept is a powerful enabler behind the speed, precision lethality and flexibility characteristics inherent to airpower. The A-10s, F-16s, F-15s and other fighters provide the teeth; the fact that we can keep them in the air for longer periods of time facilitates concentration of mass with an unprecedented economy of force,” he said.

“The way the war being fought now would stop if we weren’t around,” said Capt. Joe Maxon, 340th EARS pilot. “We’re able to allow the fighters to hang out in an area to provide the ground guys with the support they need.”

Helping provide that support is a very important job the refuelers are proud to do, stated Captain Maxon, deployed from Grand Forks Air Base, N.D.

“It’s amazing to be able to help troops on the ground get home safe,” stated the captain. “That’s what we’re here for.”

According to Colonel Gautier, the way the Air Force fights wars is becoming more reliant on tanker aircraft to fuel the fight.

“This is a tanker war; if for some reason the tanker fleet was to be grounded, air power would be limited by the fuel it could take off with,” stated the colonel. “That would severely curtail our ability to protect ground forces without a huge increasing manpower and aircraft assets.”

Recently, the 340th EARS, which is comprised of people and aircraft from nine different active, guard and reserve units, was called to perform above and beyond their normal capability during Operation Mountain Lion over the skies of Afghanistan, stated Colonel Gautier.

Operations reached their peak in the 10-day operation on April 15 when the unit off loaded almost 50 percent of the millions of pounds of fuel transferred midair in the entire U.S. Central Command AOR, said James Malachowski, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing historian. It was the largest one day offload of fuel in the AOR since the beginnings of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, added Mr. Malachowski.

Highlighting the accomplishments of his unit during Operation Mountain Lion, Colonel Gautier stated the 340th EARS offloaded three times the combined amount of fuel off loaded by the nine tanker units the people in the squadron are deployed from.

According to the colonel, the unit’s success would never have been accomplished had it not been for every member of the refueling team doing their jobs.

“We offloaded over 10 million pounds of fuel and consumed another 10 million pounds of fuel ourselves in just 10 days,” he said. “That comes down to POL troops uploading over 20 million pounds of fuel, maintainers launching over 160 sorties, and aircrew flying over 1,000 hours in a week-and-half.”

Colonel Gautier also gave accolades to all base agencies for his unit’s success.

“We can’t do it by ourselves; it’s a team effort, and that’s from the crew chiefs to the (civil engineering) guys who make our living quarters comfortable enough for effective crew rest,” he stated. “They underwrite everything we make happen.”

Despite the stresses inherent with the mission, Colonel Gautier said this is an exciting time to be in the tanker world.

“Taking part in these missions is incredibly exciting because when people review the history, they’ll be looking at the success of an operation from the lessons learned perspective,” he said. “The possibility that any of our daily operations here could be a decisive point in the Global War on Terrorism drives a tremendous amount of energy into what we do.”