Photo By 1st Lt. Kali Gradishar | U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Cory Robbins, Marine Tilt Rotor Squadron 266-Reinforced...... read more read more
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By Staff Sgt. Kali L. Gradishar
PANO AQIL CANTONMENT, Pakistan – As U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion and CH-46 Sea Knight aircrews continue to fly miles away carrying thousands of pounds of relief supplies to flood victims throughout the Sindh province, Pakistan, a small group of Marines remain surreptitiously behind the scenes keeping the aircraft fueled for the flights.
“A lot of the country is still water logged, and even though there are a lot of places where roads are visible and being used by the people here, there are also still some places that are cut off and only reachable by helicopter,” said Cpl. Kevin Trammell, Marine Tilt Rotor Squadron 266-Reinforced (VMM-266-REIN), 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, fuels NCO in charge.
To reach those people still isolated by flood waters, U.S. Marine Corps helicopters, in coordination with the World Food Programme and Pakistan military, arrange for the rotary-wing aircraft to drop hundreds of pounds of food to where it can be distributed to those in need. But getting the aircraft in the air requires more than mechanics to maintain the aircraft and pilots to fly it – the aircraft require fuel.
“Without fuel, pilots are pedestrians,” said Sgt. Kenny Wilhite, fuels staff NCO in charge, who oversees the distribution of fuel to pilots flying relief supplies throughout the Sindh province.
“In a typical day, we’ll come out to fuel pit on the air strip and do a recirculation of the fuel, which means we’ll run it through the filters after it’s been sitting out all night. We’ll test the fuel to make sure it’s safe for the aircraft. Then we’ll support the humanitarian missions for the day by either helping offload food from the aircraft or ensuring fuel is ready for the aircraft whenever they need it,” Trammell said.
As the fuelers sit in a shaded area near the airfield to avoid the heat of the day, they hear the repetitive thump of helicopters rotors in the distance and are instantly on their feet headed to the fuel pit. One Marine waits at each fueling point for the empty aircraft to arrive. The fueler hands the nozzle to the crew chief and gives the hand signal to a Marine in the fuel pit to start fueling. Meanwhile, a fellow fueler is in the helicopter loading 90-pound bags of flour and boxes of high-energy biscuits donated by the WFP for distribution to flood victims.
“I’ve been out with the [CH-53's] on four trips all to different locations,” said Lance Cpl. Cory Robbins, fuel line walker. “I remember the first trip I went out on, I was surprised to see that all around it was completely flooded. The place we went, there was one bank of the river where everyone was living because that was the only land that was above water.”
Each day the 26th MEU fuelers take turns accompanying the helicopters to the WFP aid distribution sites to aid in the offloading of food. Since arriving at Pano Aqil Cantonment, each fueler has been provided with the opportunity to aid with the distribution of relief supplies throughout southern Pakistan where flood waters have devastated homes, crops and livelihoods in the worst natural disaster to hit Pakistan.
“I tell my Marines that this is one of those life’s lessons in seeing how other people live and to learn to be grateful for what they have,” said Trammell, who arrived with his unit at Pano Aqil Cantonment, Pakistan, Oct. 4. “I tell them to never lose these memories -- to always remember the scale of what they’re doing, how important it is for them to be able to do this and to be thankful for the opportunity to help others.”
“I’ve been out three different times to three different places to help offload food, and each time there’s a multitude of people waiting there for us. You see some of the places we land where there’s not much around, but there are little villages scattered here and there fairly far apart and you know how far some of these people travelled to get the food,” said the corporal, a Cornersville, Tenn., native who has been in the Marine Corps for more than three years. “I saw how desperate the Pakistani people were with the devastation the floods brought and what it cost the people in terms of their livelihood. I’ve also seen the gratefulness of the people here as we bring them food.”
Since U.S. helicopter relief operations began Aug. 5, more than 12 million pounds of food have been transported to isolated areas in need of assistance after flooding left approximately 1/5 of the county under water at its height. Contributing to that were the fuelers, ensuring helicopters were fueled and ready for flight. From Oct. 4 to Oct. 23, the fuelers provided nearly 96,000 gallons of fuel.
They operate three fueling points and two 20,000 gallon bags with the capability of pumping 240 gallons per minute. With the missions the CH-46 Sea Knights and the CH-53 Super Stallions are running, the fuelers typically provide about 5,000 gallons of fuel per day.
“We got busy right away when we got here and it’s been the same thing every day,” said Robbins, a Muncy, Pa., native who has been in the Marine Corps for little more than a year.
“For the simple fact that of the missions we’re running, we’re only fueling four aircraft per day as they go on multiple runs to different sites, that’s quite a lot of fuel,” added Trammell, on his first humanitarian deployment but previously deployed Camp Korean Village, Iraq, in 2009. “In the seven months I was deployed to Iraq, we only issued a total of 400,000 gallons of fuel. In 19 days, we’ve already supplied a quarter of that.”
Other than seeing the differences between his deployment to Iraq and work in Pakistan as far as fueling aircraft, Trammell, as well as other Marines contributing to the humanitarian mission in Pakistan, also noticed a sincere change in the mentality of Marines as they switched from combat to humanitarian mode.
“Marines stereotypically have the mentality of being hard core, but seeing all these Marines come together and truly care about being here to help and are happy to do so has been surprising. This is not what we train to do. We train for combat. And to be able to turn that combat mentality off and switch to humanitarian mode is pretty incredible,” said Trammell. “It’s not as stressful as a combat deployment and in terms of seeing progress, it’s been much more rewarding.”
“Even though Marines train for combat, it’s a priority for us to help other countries in a time of need,” agreed Robbins. “I don’t have a whole lot of experience in the Marine Corps, so I can’t compare combat to humanitarian missions, but I can say that for me being here and experiencing the humanitarian missions has been amazing. But at the same time, seeing all the destruction here is pretty sad -- to see how people are still trying to live in their villages even though they’re flooded and have little food.”
The fuelers are a behind-the-scenes contributor to flood relief operations as, as well as direct providers of flood relief supplies when taking their turn at flying with the CH-53 and CH-46 helicopters to aid distribution sites. From pumping gas to heaving heavy bags of flour, the fuelers’ mission is vital to the U.S. military flood relief efforts in the Sindh province.
“Our job is very essential in any mission – in the air or on the ground,” said Trammell. “Being here to support the humanitarian missions, though, will leave me with a great sense of pride in knowing how many people we helped.
“Seeing how much devastation there was here has really impacted me, and I personally feel much more grateful for the little things in my life after seeing what the Pakistani people have been through,” he said. “There still a lot of flooded towns, but I’ve seen that people are getting back into their rhythm as the land’s drying up and they’re starting to plant their crops.”
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.27.2010 01:33 |
| Story ID: | 58884 |
| Location: | PANO AQIL CANTONMENT, PK |
| Web Views: | 272 |
| Downloads: | 7 |
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