Laughlin contractor refuels its one-millionth aircraft

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Blake Mize
  • 47th Flying Training Wing public affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Laughlin's 47th Logistics Readiness Division Fuels Management Flight recently surpassed a milestone that was 19 years in the making.

The unit that refuels every Laughlin aircraft as well as any visiting aircraft performed its one-millionth servicing on the night of Aug. 25.

Robert Rodriguez, 47th LRD, topped off a T-38 aircraft around 10:30 p.m. Aug 25 to surpass the mark that has been accumulating since the Air Force contracted the 47th LRD in 1991.

"Some bases that have large frame aircraft may never do a million servicings," said Jerry Holt, 47th LRD terminal manager. "We're annually in the top three in number of aircraft servicings in the entire Air Force."

Holt said that although a few other bases may have reached the one-million milestone, Laughlin is the first he knows of that has documented the feat.

"Other bases just don't do as many and most of them don't keep track," he said. "We've done anywhere from 48,000 to 64,000 servicings a year."

Thomas Busch, 47th LRD fuels quality assurance evaluator. credits Holt with keeping up with all the refuelings over the last two decades.

"Other bases have never really kept track of some of these significant milestones. Mr. Holt has done that and brought it to our attention," said Busch.

Maybe more importantly, almost all of the one-million refuelings have been done safely.

"We've gone three years now without a time-lost injury to any of our people. That's a milestone in itself," said Holt.

"To achieve a million servicings and to do it without any safety mishaps is a significant milestone for a contract operation. It just shows the partnership between the military and the civilian sides," said Busch. "The Air Force is definitely getting their money's worth from this contract."