Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Cossel | Lancaster, Calif., resident, Pfc. Alicia Valenti checks the fuels levels of a PLS...... read more read more
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CAMP ROBERTS, Calif. – When it comes to his role in California Army National Guard aviation community, 2nd Lt. John Plager is pointed in his assessment:
“Without us, pilots would be pedestrians,” he said.
Plager isn’t just whistling Dixie. As the forward area refuel/rearm point (FARP) platoon leader for Company A, 640th Aviation Support Battalion, he and his Soldiers have dispensed more than 85,000 gallons of fuel the first week of their annual training at Camp Roberts, an effort that required working from the break-of-dawn till the darkened hours of midnight.
“We don’t do anything like this at home station,” Plager said. “So the real-world training my team is receiving out here is invaluable.”
As Plager finishes his comments, two UH-60 Black Hawks land and pull forward for fuel. Just a few minutes earlier, two of the iconic Army aircrafts had lifted off with a full load. Plager’s fuel trucks pump at nearly 90 gallons each minute. Filling a Black Hawk – about 200 gallons -- is one thing, filling a CH-47 Chinook -- with a well-over 1,000-gallon capacity -- is another matter all together.
Another pointed assessment:
“This operation would not work were it not for the experience and professionalism of my senior NCOs,” the lieutenant said. “Everything here comes down to NCO leadership.”
His ranks filled with inexperienced privates and freshly promoted specialists, Plager relies on his senior noncommissioned officers to keep the FARP running smoothly and to impart hard-earned wisdom to the young team.
A battle-forged veteran, Sgt. 1st Class Raymundo Lopez of San Diemas, California, is one such NCO.
“Safety and attention to detail are the two most critical factors out here on the flight line,” Lopez said.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the combination of a fully operational aircraft and hundreds of gallons of JP-8 flowing from the fuel truck to the bird require one’s head be on a swivel. Yet after hundreds of assets fueled and long hours on the flight line, complacency is a mortal enemy.
“You don’t pay attention around here and you can get killed,” Lopez said.
With that, Lopez said his Soldiers are coming along, every day moving in the right direction.
“They’re really integrating well,” Lopez said. “And they’re starting to develop that unit cohesion needed in a team like this.”
Lopez attributed some of that cohesion to the long hours each day in addition to the two-week annual training.
“Spending so much time together, you actually begin to learn people and their capabilities,” he said. “And that’s something that only comes by spending the time doing this.”
| Date Taken: | 06.14.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.16.2014 11:57 |
| Story ID: | 133224 |
| Location: | TORRANCE, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 156 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Field Expedient Gas-n-Go, by SFC Benjamin Cossel, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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