Tech. Sgt. Anderson Matthews, 75th Logistics Readiness Squadron, recently received notice that he had won Air Force Fuels Noncommissioned Officer of the Year at the AFMC level.
The honor includes work he did as lead on the new hydrant fuel system in which he served as liaison with the contractor responsible for the $20 million installation.
While the time period for his award was Oct. 1, 2010, through Sept. 30, 2011, a good deal of work went into the preparation and liaison work needed with the contractor prior to the hydrant system coming online. The hydrant system was officially turned over to Hill on April 22.
"We had a variety of warranty issues that we had (to work through), problems with pieces of equipment or systems flaws that were identified and then corrected," said Matthews.
The 75th Logistics Readiness Squadron technical sergeant said that those challenges were overcome with the assistance of the Army Corps of Engineers, Hill AFB civil engineers and personnel from the water and fuel maintenance shop areas. "I know it sounds like a cliché, but it was a team effort," he said
His nomination package mentions that even after the official commission ceremony there were six post commission hydrant warranty defects detected; Matthews scheduled the repairs and made sure that the warranty defects he had found were corrected.
According to his nominating commander, Matthews was instrumental in the first hydrant system hot pits in the Air Force Materiel Command -- an aircraft flies in, is refueled without shutting down its engines and can then take off more quickly. These 671 F-16 hot refuels helped ensure that the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings were combat ready.
As the noncommissioned officer in charge of Fixed Facilities, he also detected a 5,000 gallon tank leak of liquid oxygen and conducted a three-day cryotainer purge which prevented a $1,300 loss with a full return to 100 percent capability of the equipment. Matthews led a team of four, issuing 12.8 million gallons of JP-8 fuel for 11,000 training sorties for the base.
He created a missile propellant inventory tracker; identified a contaminated oxygen cart which led to the grounding of six aircraft to prevent the potential loss of those aircraft and personnel; mentored Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets and conducted multiple training, seasoning programs on fuels and the hydrant system for active duty, Reserve, and temporary duty personnel bolstering flight performance for the base.
If that's not enough, he managed the tool program, inventorying and etching 2,000 tools worth an estimated $75,000 to help prevent potential foreign object damage on the flightline.
When asked about what strikes him the most about seeing the hydrant fuel system up and running, and its effective use in the hot pits, Matthews said, "I get satisfaction out of everything being normal. When we are doing our job there are no issues. Things do happen that we are ready to react to at a moment's notice, but a normal day around here is great!"
