100th CES WFSM keeps base running

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Dillon Johnston
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  On an Air Force installation, there are a few key components needed for operations to run smoothly. At the bare minimum, a base needs water and in most cases, an airfield.

"Without that, you don't have an air base," said U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Eric Wise, 100th Civil Engineer Squadron NCO in charge of water and fuels systems maintenance. "We maintain the water source, we get rid of the waste, and we make sure that the fuel can flow across base."

Spanning three work centers, the shop enables mission completion through the maintenance of all plumbing, water filtration systems and fuel lines on base.
"Anybody opens a tap up, and there's water there, it's been touched by water and fuels systems maintenance," Wise said.

The fire suppression in buildings which maintain safety levels and protect the assets and people inside is the responsibility of water and fuels systems maintenance. They also maintain the infrastructure to get fuel to the aircraft, and all the pipes in between.

With a finger on the pulse of the base, the shop is able to respond to any crisis regarding water or fuel, and repair it in a timely manner. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Rodney Martin, 100th CES water and fuels systems maintenance craftsman, recounts a base wide emergency he dealt with at a previous assignment.

"At Osan Air Base, Korea, the main water line for the base broke, so we had to work 24 hour operations; 12 on, 12 off until we got it fixed," he said. "The base couldn't take a shower for two and a half days."

Thanks to the quick work from the shop, the time without water was mitigated and the base was back up and operational less than three days.

The water and fuels systems maintenance shop doesn't only deal with pipes carrying water; their other main responsibility is the upkeep of the fuel lines running across base.
"There's quite a lot of maintenance involved in that," said Paul Murfitt, 100th CES fuels systems maintenance technical charge hand for liquid fuel systems. "There's the setting and adjustment of automatic valves, meters and pressure relief systems, and there's quite a lot of electronics where there didn't used to be, which makes fault finding pretty interesting as well."

As the sole shop on base working on all of this, the base populace depends on them heavily for their basic necessities.

"You can't live without water," Airman 1st Class Jarrad Faulkner, 100th CES water and fuels systems maintenance journeyman, put simply.

Just how much the base relies on the shop can be hard to see on a day-to-day basis, but without them, operations could come to a grinding halt.

"There are key components throughout the water and fuels systems maintenance section, and if any one of them goes down, the base is going to suffer," said Wise.

Because of the work the water and fuels systems maintenance does every day, RAF Mildenhall benefits via a more comfortable existence and non-stop mission readiness.