US Air Force,
MANAS AIR BASE, Kyrgyzstan: At 16 degrees Fahrenheit, the Manas Air Base Weather Office issues an observed temperature advisory.
At -16 F, diesel fuel starts to gel and Manas Airmen are advised to start affected vehicles and let them run for 15 minutes each hour.
And from ranges all the way down to -30 F at Manas duirng the last several weeks, KC-135 Stratotankers and C-17 Globemaster IIIs continue to climb slowly out of the mist and subfreezing haze on their way to vital air refueling and cargo delivery missions in Afghanistan.
The heavy aircraft are able to do so because of the combined efforts of maintenance crews and logistics readiness Airmen who brave the elements to keep the aircraft mission ready.
“It can get really miserable and the cold slows you down,” said Airman 1st Class Raymond Kittle, 376th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron KC-135 crew chief. “It takes a lot more time to do things in negative temperatures — a one hour task easily turns into two hours.”
That's understandable, considering that the U.S. National Weather Service defines the range from 0 to -19 as “Bitter cold. Frostbite possible. Exposed skin can freeze within five minutes.”
Keeping ice and snow off the aircraft is the primary task,* and it's accomplished with the help of de-icers — crane-like vehicles with an Airman at the controls in a small cab at the top to spray de-icing fluid and anti-icing fluid on the aircraft.
Manas has a fleet of de-icers — to include standard and extended Global De-Icers (for C-17 tails) that rise to 47 feet without stabilizers and 78 feet with stabilizers.
“Using two de-icers at the same time, we can get an aircraft ready pretty quick,” said Tech. Sgt. Judson Bunkley, 376th EMXS flying crew chief, who — along with Airman Kittle — often operates a de-icer. “The new Global De-Icers make it a lot easier. I remember when we didn't have the warm, enclosed cab and used to sit in an open basket out in the elements.”
However, some of the snow clearing and ice removal are still done the old-fashioned way.
“We go around with shovels and brooms in front of the landing gear, and when there's a lot of snow, we brush it off the wings,” said Senior Airman Andrew Mitchell, another 376th EMXS flying crew chief. “The most difficult part is using a rope to break ice off the back of the fuselage — it tires you out real quick.”
But the subfreezing temperatures also wreak havoc with the de-icers themselves and more than once the equipment designed to keep other hardware operational in the severe cold has suffered malfunctions of their own – which is where the 376th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron vehicle maintenance technicians come in.
“We overstressed our assets and when some of our critical de-icing vehicles broke, our sister ELRS special vehicle maintenance folks took the lead and worked long and hard hours to return those assets to the flightline and back into the weather fight,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Eisenhauer, 376th Expeditionary Maintenance Group commander.
“We didn't have any experienced Global De-Icer technicians when we arrived at Manas,” said Tech. Sgt. Lesley Wilcox, 376th ELRS Vehicle Maintenance NCOIC. “We all had to get in the books and learn the computer systems on our own in order to overcome the maintenance problems. We learned a great deal in an extremely short amount of time.”
The vehicle maintenance crews' efforts helped keep the de-icers operational and the flying mission unaffected.
“I can't say enough about my team of technicians,” said Sergeant Wilcox. “They would not leave the shop until they were finished with whichever de-icer they had in the shop. Without the dedication they showed, we could not have met the challenges to keep the sortie-generating and sortie-sustaining vehicles up and running.”
Keeping the de-icers “up and running” and the aircraft mission ready has been no easy task as it has been the coldest winter at Manas since the weather flight began keeping statistics here in 2003.
“December and January are typically the coldest months here,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Funk, 376th Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron weather forecaster. “The average temperature for January is a high of 32 F and a low of 16 F, but we are certainly well below those averages now and will remain so for the next two weeks — with a storm system moving in and temperatures which may be in the neighborhood of -22 F next week.”
That would almost reach the low of -30 F (with the wind chill factor) recorded here Dec. 29.
“(Kyrgyzstan) is a land-locked country, far from any decent sized body of water and since water acts as a temperature moderator, we are more prone to large swings in temperatures,” said Sergeant Funk. “The position of the polar front jet stream has been far enough south to allow the Asiatic High to remain strong over the area and has allowed more arctic air to settle in and stay here.”
In layman's terms — it's very, very cold and will stay that way for some time.
But adhering to the wing's motto of “Mission First, Safety Always,” Manas Airmen continue to ensure aircraft are ready to support the war on terrorism and they do it smartly.
“Unit commanders are responsible for determining mission essential operations during extreme temperatures,” said Tech. Sgt. Benjamin Blount, 376th Air Expeditionary Wing ground safety manager. “We have guidance that governs work/rest cycles during cold weather operations that our Airmen adhere to. It's important to note that warming must be in an indoor, heated environment.”
Safety is paramount when it comes to cold weather operations.
“The safety of our aircrews depends on our ability to safely and effectively remove accumulated ice and snow, any time, day or night, when called upon,” said Colonel Eisenhauer. “Ice, fog, freezing drizzle, snow, brutally cold temperatures and no hangars combine to make the generation of KC-135 and C-17 sorties challenging during extreme weather operations here at Manas.
“During heavy snows, our maintainers clear snow from the wings, fuselages and tails to meet the air tasking orders, and they do it without complaint,” he continued. “In several cases they've had to do this twice, and even a third time, as visibility worsened and stalled flying operations after jets taxied. The only missions lost were those due to visibility, not because aircraft weren't ready to launch.”
And when they launch, it makes it all worthwhile for those who made it possible.
“The cold is miserable,” said Airman Kittle, “but when you see that jet take off because of everybody's efforts, you're really happy and know you've made a difference.”
