MARINE CORPS AIR STATION CHERRY POINT, N.C. - Motor transportation Marines with various units within II Marine Expeditionary Force participated in the Semi Refueler Operator Course aboard Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina, Dec. 2 – 23, 2014.
“(In this course) we teach (the students) how to operate the tractor trailer,” said Staff Sgt. Kemmitt Kreimann, an instructor with the SROC. “Basically we teach them all of their different refueling operations … anywhere from defuel to the actual fueling, to evacuating as well.”
These are just a few of the tasks Marines are expected to complete as a semitrailer refueler operator, according to Kreimann, an Idaho Falls, Idaho, native. When Marines conduct defueling, they unload bulk fuel used for various military aircraft from the M970 semi-trailer refueler into the specific aircraft being used for a mission. Fueling is the opposite, Marines will load bulk fuel into the trailer from a tank or an aircraft, and evacuating requires the Marines to remove fuel from the hoses used to fuel and defuel.
Other tasks include maneuvering the MK31 medium tactical vehicle and the trailer, performing preventative maintenance checks and services, as well as emergency procedures including changing tires or changing out the trailer.
Kreimann and one other instructor, Sgt. Marcus Johnson, came to Cherry Point from the Motor Transport Instruction Company at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, to teach the course as part of a mobile training team.
“The mobile training teams are more convenient for the units and more cost effective for us to come out here than for 24 students to come out to Ft. Leonard Wood,” said Kreimann. “The end goal is to make sufficient refueling operators, so that they’re comfortable when they go out and properly refuel - whatever the case may be.”
The course and the MOS play a vital role within the Marine Corps, as well as the motor transportation field, according to Sgt. Angel Ibarra, a student with the course and a motor vehicle operator with Marine Wing Support Squadron 273, Marine Aircraft Group 31, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing.
“In this course I wanted to learn more of the other side of (my job field), since I have been with (the vehicle operator side), I want to learn more about the wing side, with the aircraft and what needs to get refueled,” said Ibarra. “This course is important (to Marine Corps readiness) because every piece of gear the Marine Corps has is run on fuel, so in case something does happen overseas, we can send SROC Marines anywhere and they can perform at their best.”