1st SOLRS receives thousands of barrels of fuel via barge

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Joe McFadden
  • 1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  For the first time in nearly a year, the 1st Special Operations Logistics Readiness Squadron received nearly half a million gallons, or nearly 12,000 barrels, of jet fuel delivered by a sea-faring barge off the Sound at Hurlburt Field, Sept. 17.

The squadron's fuels management flight did not receive any barge deliveries while one of the base's two storage tanks underwent an upgrade beginning in January.

"In the past, we would receive a barge with a minimum of 420,000 gallons," said 2nd Lt. Nathan Tilton, 1st SOLRS fuels management acting-flight commander. "But we couldn't afford to wait for our fuel to get down that low before we refilled it. Now we're 100 percent operational with two tanks in service, and we can use one and have the other filled."

During the tanks' maintenance, the base received fuel delivered by 7,500-gallon tanker trucks. The barge's two football-field sized tanks can deliver 90 times that amount. In fact, the barge can deliver in one day what would take the trucks three weeks.

Contractors and barge personnel connected the tank to the pipeline that goes straight from the Sound to the base reserves. The squadron also put out a large cordon of protective boom as a safety precaution in the water.

After 1st SOLRS Fuels Laboratory personnel analyzed the fuel for temperature and quality, Department of Defense fuels contractors from the Maytag Aircraft Corporation began receiving the fuel at a rate of 60,000 gallons per hour.

"In fact, every four-and-a-half minutes of pumped fuel is enough for a C-130 during normal refueling," Lieutenant Tilton said. "This type of delivery increases our capability and also reduces the manpower requirements of daily receiving trucks so we can look at the bigger issue of maintaining our tanks and saving money."

While the delivery marked the newly-improved tanks first fuel transfer by a pipeline, it also marked the barge, the M.P. Stephanie Kennelly's, first stop at Hurlburt Field. The barge makes regular fuel deliveries down the Mississippi River and at military installations along the Gulf of Mexico.

"We love being here, and you all have been great folks to work with," said Peter Maier, captain of the M.P. Stephanie Kennelly. "We're always glad to help the men and women in uniform."