100th OSS Wing Schedulers provide one-stop shop to build, execute refueling missions

  • Published
  • By Karen Abeyasekere
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL --  In fiscal year 2013, the 100th Air Refueling Wing carried out 8,350 flying hours with 1,530 sorties, enabling the wing to offload 58 million pounds of fuel to more than 5,500 receivers from the U.S., NATO and other coalition forces.

Behind the scenes, one of the key players in getting RAF Mildenhall's KC-135 Stratotankers in the air and supporting others around the world is the 100th Operations Support Squadron Wing Scheduling office.

Working hand-in-hand with the 100th Maintenance Group, which assigns tankers to missions, the aircraft schedulers build the mission and take care of many flight details. A separate scheduling office assigns aircrew members to each flight.

"Our job is to coordinate between maintenance, aircrew schedulers and the receiving units, wherever they are in Europe, and to ensure everyone is on the same page," said Tech. Sgt. Roger Vula, 100th OSS boom operator and NCO in charge of wing scheduling current operations.

"We do two-week cycles, building (the schedule) one week, and executing it the next," said the Gardena, Calif., native. "We get requests from foreign military, as well as U.S. Air Force receivers, letting us know when they need tanker support."

RAF Mildenhall's tankers cover all of Europe and parts of Africa, and the wing schedulers build the mission for all of them. Their command and control agency, the 603rd Air Operations Center, Air Mobility Division, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, tasks the schedulers up to eight missions per day, then the base can add two extra missions, giving them a potential total of 10 per day.

"When we do our 'execute cycle,' I'm the point of contact for every KC-135 mission that happens that week," Vula said. "I'll be called if there are changes to a mission, and I'll tell them either, 'Yes, we can do it,' or 'No, we can't do it.'"

Vula explained there are some requests which require the permission of Col. Nancy Bozzer, 100th Operations Group commander, but other than that everything comes through the wing schedulers.

"We're the one-stop shop for the whole base," he said.

Although not a 24-hour shop, the schedulers always have someone on call, so they can still provide their service around the clock.

"We coordinate everything to make sure that the mission happens and everyone is on the same page. If a unit's receiver needs a tail (aka air refueling support), they send their request to us and we then go to maintenance and ask them to support it. They then say, 'Yes' and give us a tail, before we go to (the aircrew schedulers) and tell them we need people for the mission," Vula said.

"We also take care of anything else needed on the mission," Vula added. "If it's a high-priority mission, they'll need communications security so we coordinate with the COMSEC folks to ensure it's taken care of."

In addition to the four officers and three enlisted aircrew in the section, there are also civilians - one Ministry of Defence employee, who keeps track of the amount of fuel offloaded, flying hours and the costs charged to receivers, and a Department of Defense employee, who provides long-range planning for events such as exercises.

The schedulers work with the planners within their section and ask for their assistance for the next stage of planning a mission. They also coordinate with the 100th ARW Command Post to ensure they are aware of the missions coming up for that week.

Vula explained that the planners within the scheduling office operate like a GPS.

"They type in the address and find the route to take to the area," he said. "They take care of the diplomatic clearances; say, for example, if we have a mission to Aviano Air Base, Italy. We have to fly over France and Switzerland, so they get the diplomatic clearances for us. They also let us know how much fuel we should put on the aircraft."

When building the flying schedule, personnel check the global decision support system (also known as "G2") to check what missions the 603rd AMD has tasked for the following week. The system shows all required information, including how much fuel the receivers need, and the date and time they need it.

"I then go into the system, make sure it matches up, and if it doesn't then I'll verify with AMD and correct it if I need to," Vula said, explaining that he adds additional notes so every knows what is needed for a particular mission.

At this point, the information will be seen by the aircrew schedulers, who then assign people to the mission, and maintenance will see it and assign a jet. It will also be decided if the flight is suitable for cargo or passengers.

"We're pretty much the managers of the mission," Vula said.

The 100th ARW and the 100th OSS schedulers regularly provide support to the 86th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Ramstein AB.

"One of their primary aircraft is the KC-135, but they don't have any stationed at Ramstein so we support them in providing the jet so they can practice taking care of patients," said Master Sgt. Max Morkin, 100th OSS Wing Scheduling superintendent of current operations from Traverse City, Mich.

The schedulers brief wing leadership on a daily basis, providing them the status of all missions, both on and off station, Morkin said.

"The mission of this wing depends on us to coordinate everything we do, whether it's passengers, cargo or air refueling," Morkin said. "Even if we're not always the office of primary responsibility, we coordinate with them - we're 'The Heartbeat of the 100th.'"