America's North Shore Journal

blockquote>"Fill 'er up" is a phrase you may have used many times back in the days of full ser­vice gas sta­tions but it’s not very com­mon ter­mi­nol­ogy in the day and age of high prices and self-service everything.

The 376^th Expe­di­tionary Logis­tics Readi­ness Squadron’s Petro­leum, Oils, and Lubri­cants Flight, how­ever, is cer­tainly an orga­ni­za­tion that still embraces the full-service ethic.

Senior Air­man Vic­to­ria Drefs, a 376^th ELRS POL tech­ni­cian, is one of the many pre­miere refu­el­ing unit oper­a­tors who takes that “extra mile” ethic to work with her every day.

Air­man Drefs is cur­rently deployed from Aviano Air Base in Italy is a native of Armour, S.D. and a three year Air Force vet­eran. She is the first and likely will be the only tech­ni­cian, of her crew of 37, dur­ing this four month rota­tion to sur­pass an amaz­ing two mil­lion gal­lons of fuel pumped into the KC-135 Stra­totanker fleet here.

This is no small feat even dur­ing the sum­mer months when the Manas Air Base fleet is nearly fifty per­cent larger and the weather con­di­tions are opti­mal, but it is truly an enor­mous achieve­ment in the harsh Kyr­gyzs­tan win­ter on an open and unpro­tected flight-line.

Vic­to­ria reached the two mil­lion gal­lon mark on the day after Christ­mas and was met by Lt. Gen Gary North, Air Forces Cen­tral Com­man­der, at the receiver air­craft to com­mem­o­rate the occa­sion with a pre­sen­ta­tion of one of his com­man­der coins.

The two mil­lion gal­lons of fuel she deliv­ered into 464 air­craft equates to 13,400,000 pounds and would aver­age out to about four or five air­craft a day dur­ing her time at Manas, if she never took a day off.

“She’s the epit­ome of what today’s Air­men can do,” said Mas­ter Sgt. Cleven Allen, 376^th ELRS fuels super­in­ten­dent, “She’s every supervisor's dream come true.”

“I knew I was get­ting close to the two mil­lion gal­lon mark because they sent us updates,” said Drefs, “but I did not know that Lt. Gen. North would be there until just before I headed to the plane. It was great how it worked out for him to be there.”

Drefs is no stranger to the lime­light when only a month prior she was selected as one of only two deployed Air Force mem­bers to receive a Thanks­giv­ing Day morale call, from Pres­i­dent George W. Bush.

She coyly said “no com­ment” when asked how pass­ing the 2 mil­lion gal­lon mark and get­ting coined by North com­pared to get­ting a phone call from the Pres­i­dent of the United States.

Drefs will rede­ploy to Italy, but she can look back fondly on her expe­ri­ences at Manas from her recog­ni­tion as a top per­former to her phone call with the Pres­i­dent or just for spend­ing time play­ing bas­ket­ball with her friends.

“Although I am ready to go home, I will never for­get my mem­o­ries of Manas,” said Drefs.

DVIDS
By Senior Mas­ter Sgt. Patrick J. McCracken
376^th Air Expe­di­tionary Wing Pub­lic Affairs

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