SAVANNAH, Ga.- Air National Guard C-130 and C-17 cargo aircraft have airlifted hundreds of Guard members and hundreds of thousands of pounds of cargo from Savannah to Puerto Rico and the island territories this week.
The Petroleum Oil and Lubricant office (POL) has supplied fuel to, 21 various types of aircraft per day. The shop has grown from 6 to 13 members, several from other units from around the nation, since Oct. 1st.
“Not a lot of people actually have the chance to help people like this, to know that the cargo cannot get down there without the amount of fuel that we have been able to provide, it’s a pleasure to do this,” said, Staff Sgt. Justin Bradford, Fuels Distribution System Technician, 134th Air Refueling Wing, McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base. “To know the cargo is going down there and is helping to save lives, you can’t really beat that!”
Each C-130H is filled with 35 thousand pounds of fuel. Fueling all aircraft types, the 165th POL has filled 687,907 total gallons of fuel since Sept. 19, 2017. Each fuel truck they receive, delivers up to nine thousand gallons of fuel from one of several Defense Fuel Supply Points. The POL team handles on average, nine trucks a day. The fuel storage tanks at the 165th distribution center can handle up to 190,000 gallons of fuel and combined the 4 tanks hold 435,000 gallons.
Low resources are an issue all over the country; the amount of fuel that the POL is distributing and the amount of fuel that they are able to receive from the DFSP continue to be a limiting factor.
“A joint aerial combat training exercise, Sentry Savannah, at Georgia Air National Guard’s Air Dominance Center, Savannah, Ga. helps the 165th prepare for this kind of tempo. “We are used to this type of volume,” said, Senior Master Sgt. McKinley Anderson, 165th POL Superintendent. “Everyone wanted to do something, all of my guys volunteered because they all wanted to help.”
The 165th’s POL shop motto is “Semper Gumby - Always Flexible.” These Airman, with the help and support from other units, have remained flexible while meeting and exceeding the demand for fuel in support of Hurricane Maria to the U.S. Islands.
“What we do, the long days and hours that we work are a small sacrifice in the much bigger picture for the people who were truly hurting,” said, Master Sgt. Bryan Glasscock, NCOIC of Fuels Bulk Storage. “At the end of the day we get to go home and those people down there, have no home to go to; the things that we take granted everyday are actually a priceless commodity!”