Where's That All-Night Gas Station?
Story by SPC Charles Ames, photos by SSG Jonathan Crane
SPC Charles Ames & SPC Jack Eden - Posted Aug, 1999
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The units of the Washington Army National Guard represent all of the branches of combat arms you would expect - Armor, Infantry, Artillery, etc. The Combat Support units are there too - units like the 898th Combat Engineers. But behind the scenes, 24-hours a day, from before Annual Training starts, until well after it is over, the team's 'unsung heroes' are hard at work.
It's pretty easy for us to show you the exciting things that our Infantry and Armor organizations are up to. Helicopters always attract attention. And if you've ever seen the 'big guns' in action, you know why the Artillery is called the "King of Battle". But behind the scenes the folks that really make things happen are about their work quietly and diligently. They rarely get the glory. They work at a steady, consistent, carefully orchestrated pace to bring "beans & bullets" to the front, or to repair vehicles torn apart by the frantic pace of modern combat, or to repair soldiers that have fallen to the dangers of that same battlefield. Here's a story of two Guardsmen who perform vital, but often overlooked, work.
One of the most precious resources for a modern mechanized force is fuel. Lots of fuel. Thousands and thousands of gallons of fuel for even a brief deployment of a typical mechanized Infantry or Armor battalion. And it absolutely must be at the right place, at the right time.
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PFC Jason Girnus is a 'Fueler' with Headquarters & Headquarters Company, 1-161st Infantry, headquartered in Spokane. When he's not pumping fuel for tanks and APC's he's a welder in Spokane. He's very proud of his mobile 'gas station' - a "High Extended Mobility Tactical Truck" - better known to the troops as a 'Hemmet'. It can ford up to 48" of water (deeper water for up to five minutes) and holds 2500 gallons of fuel.
PFC Girnus estimates that he has dispensed over 30,000 gallons of JP-8 while serving with his current unit. Most of the tactical vehicles being used by the U.S. military now use JP-8 in lieu of normal diesel fuel (DF-2). JP-8 is an all-purpose fuel that has also replaced JP-4, a older aviation fuel. Even our helicopters use it. It burns hotter and cleaner than DF-2, which means that it's better for the environment. This new fuel provides a tactical advantage as well - there's less of the traditional dark plume of diesel smoke that can be a giant black arrow pointing to tactical positions.
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A modern battlefield is active 24 hours a day, and so are our tanks, Bradley's and other vehicles. That means the 'gas station' has to stay open at all hours. A typical refueling point is manned by a two-man crew and PFC Girnus' boss is CPL Travis Greene, a Correctional Officer at Airway Heights Correctional Center near Spokane. Since they relocate frequently in order to keep up with the changes in the battlefield, these two never really get a chance to settle down. Sleep is intermittent and often takes the form of a quick nap slumped against the door of their Hemmet. "One good thing about the 'Hounddog' (his truck), it has a good heater!" Girnus crows. Chow is often a simple 'Meals - Ready to Eat' (the famous MRE). Occasionally they are fed by the units they serve and get a hot meal, such as during a 'Log Pack', when a unit rolls through a single point to receive chow, fuel, ammunition and, if necessary, medical attention. But all too often fuel and chow just don't happen at the same time.
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Fueler teams have a great deal of responsibility. The success of all mechanized operations depends on their work. Refueling the thirsty tanks is not as simple as simply handing the nozzle up to a crewman and starting the pump. There is a crushing volume of regulations that pertain to the proper and safe method to dispense fuel. If even a cupful spills onto the ground, a strict protocol goes into effect. They may not have to 'moonsuits', a la 'X-Files', but the procedure is well known. Every bit of the affected soil - and the area around it - must be dug up, bagged, tagged and taken to the local 'HazMat' authority when the unit returns to the rear. These considerations are above and beyond accounting for personal safety, static grounding, having a proper fire extinguisher always within reach, maintenance of their own vehicle and insuring that other vehicles don’t crash into their fueler as they draw alongside... in the dark, in the rain.
These soldiers have to be self-reliant and well disciplined. They operate on their own most of the time, getting orders via radio from their 'higher' telling them where to go and when to be there. They have to navigate to the new location, avoiding any 'bad guys' on the way - a 'Hemmet' is a fairly valuable target. "We’ve just been moving all the time," reports CPL Greene. "Not a lot of down-time... our AT (Annual Training) passes pretty quickly."
These are but two of the hundreds of Guardsmen whose story is rarely told. There are cooks who work long hours to bring hot chow to tired soldiers in the field. There are medics that follow us into the field to care for soldiers injured in accidents, as well as conduct their own tactical training such as mass casualty exercises (called a 'Mass-Cas'). Mechanics perform their work in perhaps the most difficult conditions of all, crawling under vehicles whose blown gaskets are dumping oil into their faces as they
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struggle to stem the flow. Each is an expert in his or her chosen Military Occupational Specialty and each works behind the scenes to make it possible for the Abrams tanks and Bradley's and howitzers to do the exciting stuff.
We just wanted to say thanks. The rest of us know your there... and we're glad you are!
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