JBSA fuels flight keep aircraft airborne, motor vehicles moving

Joint Base San Antonio’s airfields hum with activity on a daily basis, supporting JBSA-Randolph’s flying training mission and an array of aircraft at JBSA-Lackland, from transports such as the C-5 and C-17 to fighters and commercial airliners.

Such a bustling operation requires huge amounts of fuel and a well-coordinated effort to ensure that the installation’s aircraft – as well as its motor vehicles and visiting aircraft – are supplied with all the fuel they need.

            That mission belongs to the 502nd Logistics Readiness Squadron Fuels Management Flight, which issues 20 million gallons of aviation fuel supporting 40,000 aircraft sorties annually and is the largest ground fuel operation in Air Education and Training Command, issuing more than 1 million gallons of ground fuel products each year.

            “We have a uniquely different mission here,” Larry Beward, 502nd LRS Fuels Management Flight chief, said. “We’re the only fuels flight that operates two fuel accounts – one civil service at JBSA-Lackland and one Defense Logistics Agency-Energy contract at JBSA-Randolph.”

            Despite the accounting difference – and the physical distance between the two locations – the fuels flight’s Department of Defense civilians and contractors “work well together as a team,” Beward said.

            “We share information that’s important, and sometimes we share equipment,” he said.

            Beward said the flight covers the full spectrum of fuel management.

            “We order, receive, test, store and issue fuel,” he said.

            The two locations’ receiving operation is especially noteworthy, Beward said.

            “We’re the largest tanker truck receiving operation in the continental United States, safely offloading more than 2,800 tanker trucks each year,” he said.

            Once fuels reach the two JBSA locations, they are stored in large fuel tanks, Beward said.

            JBSA-Lackland has two tanks, each capable of storing more than 970,000 gallons of aviation fuel; JBSA-Randolph also has two tanks – one that stores 820,000 gallons, the other 410,000 gallons.

            “Aviation fuel is filtered as it is transferred into an R-11 refueling vehicle that holds 6,000 gallons,” Beward said. “The refueling vehicle then is taken to the flightline where the fuel is filtered once again as it is transferred into an aircraft.

“The end result is the aircraft receiving the highest quality of aviation fuel,” he said.

            Ground fuel is stored at each military service station, Beward said, and the number of tanks or gallons each tank holds varies across JBSA.

            “We operate five different military service stations and have a total of 13 tanks that store 120,000 gallons of ground fuel products,” he said.

            The fuels infrastructures at JBSA-Lackland and JBSA-Randolph have their own distinguishing characteristics, including the number of military service stations they operate, Beward said.

            The JBSA-Lackland component operates its own military service station and three other service stations at Medina Annex, JBSA-Fort Sam Houston and JBSA-Camp Bullis, offering unleaded gas, diesel, E-85, biodiesel and Jet A for Army tactical vehicles as part of the “single fuel on the battlefield doctrine,” he said.

            JBSA-Lackland’s fuel fleet includes seven R-11 refueling vehicles, three R-12 hydrant servicing vehicles and three C-300 mobile service station vehicles.

            JBSA-Lackland’s operation is also distinguished by its Type-3 hydrant fuel delivery system featuring a system of underground pipes that go to 13 aviation serving pits, Beward said.

            “That allows us to pump large quantities of fuel into the C-5 aircraft using a single fuels vehicle,” he said.

            The JBSA-Randolph component operates its own military service station, which offers gas, diesel, E-85 and biodiesel, Beward said.

            JBSA-Randolph, which also supports the Seguin Auxiliary Airfield, has a fuel fleet of 11 R-11 refueling vehicles and two C-300 mobile service station vehicles.

            Dennis Stewart, 502nd LRS Fuels Management Flight contracting officer representative, said the fuels flight contractors at JBSA-Randolph “play a vital role in the overall success of both the 12th Flying Training Wing and mission partners as well as the mission of the Air Force and other DOD military components.”

            “The fuels flight has the sole responsibility for the on-time delivery of clean and dry fuel to satisfy all aircraft mission requirements regardless of aircraft origin, including base aircraft, any DOD transient aircraft and, on occasion, foreign military and any other DLA-E-authorized customer,” he said.

            Stewart said the contractors’ work at JBSA-Randolph results in “on-time, safe and environmentally sound delivery of petroleum and cryogenics products, facilitating on-time aircraft take-offs and speedy fuel recoveries to meet operations-planned pilot training missions.”

            Other components of the JBSA fuels operation are fuels laboratories, fuels control centers and environmental sections at JBSA-Lackland and JBSA-Randolph, Beward said.

            “Both JBSA locations run a fuels laboratory that ensures the quality of fuel and safety of flight,” he said. “Both locations also have a fuels control center to direct the fuels operations, and both locations have an environmental section.”

            Among the fuels flight’s other duties are providing liquid oxygen for aviators and bringing fuel to 50 organizational fuel tanks.

            Beward said the fuels flight is a “true example of total force.”

            “The fuels flight supports active duty – Army, Navy and Air Force – a reserve wing, an Air National Guard wing, commercial aircraft as part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program and international aircraft,” he said.

            Beward said experience is one of the hallmarks of the JBSA fuels flight.

“Between the two operations we have 1,000 years of fuels experience in the workforce,” he said. “It’s invaluable to have that much experience coming to work every day.”