Tankers enable mission accomplishment

By Airman 1st Class David Dobrydney
379th Air Expeditionary Wing

(12/5/09) -- Even the most advanced military aircraft needs fuel in order to be of use. For the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron here in Southwest Asia, its mission is to support other aircraft so they can fulfill their mission of supporting troops on the ground.

"We supply most all the refueling capability in [Operation Iraqi Freedom] and about a third of the capability in [Operation Enduring Freedom]" Lt. Col. Bret Frymire, 340 EARS commander, said. "We refuel every unit operating in the field right now, to include our Coalition partners."

To maintain its 24/7 support, the 340 EARS' operations tempo is very fast paced, with more than 20 sorties daily.

"We have a [KC-]135 taking off or landing every hour of the day," said Lt. Col. Bill Stowe, 340 EARS director of operations. As the DO, Stowe is charged with scheduling the missions to meet that tempo.

"We have so many taskings with only so many crews; it's sometimes like putting together a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle," he said. To solve that puzzle, Stowe will periodically pilot a mission to see where the scheduling process can be improved.

While Stowe is deployed here from McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., the rest of the crews come from several different places. "We have guard, reserve and active-duty, not just from [Air Mobility Command] but also [Pacific Air Forces], [U.S. Air Force in Europe], etc.," he said. Frymire is deployed from Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, and said the majority of flying squadrons deploy as units. "As far as flying squadrons, we are unique in that regard," he said.

Regardless of where they deploy from, the 340 EARS Airmen coalesce into a single unit in pursuit of mission accomplishment. "The plane flies the same no matter what, so everyone works together and the mission goes off without a hitch," Stowe said.

The mission is accomplished even though the KC-135 aircraft here have been plying their trade now for decades. The newest KC-135 currently on the ramp was built in 1963. "We are flying a classic airframe," Stowe said. "Trying to keep them airborne is always a challenge but the maintainers do an outstanding job. We couldn't support the mission without the support we get from the maintainers."

With that support underneath them, the tankers continue to fly eight to 10 hour sorties, providing 50,000 to 120,000 pounds of fuel on a typical mission. Master Sgt. Jeff Van Nortwick, an in flight air refueling boom operator deployed from the Nebraska Air National Guard, is the one who monitors the release of that fuel.

When performing refueling maneuvers, such as 'yo-yo' operations where one aircraft will come up for fuel while another provides support for ground troops and then rotating, Van Nortwick's job is made just a little easier by the experience of the pilots. "What I've noticed in my time here is that the receivers are very stable," he said, meaning he is able to smoothly connect the boom to the receiving aircraft. "They have the experience and it shows," Van Nortwick said.

For Van Nortwick, the pace of missions obligates crew members to remain flexible. "You're not necessarily always flying from 8 to 5 -- it rotates as the taskings come," he said. "Sometimes it just happens where you're flying daytime missions and your day starts later and later until eventually you're flying at night."

However, Van Nortwick considers his job very rewarding. "It's extremely gratifying to know when you give gas to a fighter who's covering a troop convoy, that [convoy] will make it from A to B," he said. "We're directly supporting troops on the ground, which makes their job a lot easier when they have an aircraft overhead providing top cover."