OPERATIONS
Soldiers from the fuel and water platoon set up an Advanced Aviation Forward Area Refueling System. They connect the
500-gallon fuel blivets to hoses that are connected to a pump, power unit, and filter/separator. Once set up, the system will
provide two refueling points. (Photo by Spc. David Maness)
Jump FARP Operations in Afghanistan
Preparing to provide a jump forward arming and refueling point in Afghanistan required the fuel and
water platoon of the 601st Aviation Support Battalion to practice providing that service.
1st Lt. Daniel Bolon
By
D
uring the retrograde of personnel and equipment from
numerous forward operating bases throughout Afghanistan,
the footprint of regularly manned
forward arming and refueling
points (FARPs) in the area of operations decreased. This created
the need for an expeditionary refueling and rearming capability to
support coalition force operations
across Regional Command South.
To address this need, Soldiers of
the fuel and water platoon of the
601st Aviation Support Battalion,
Task Force Guardian, prepared for
jump forward arming and refueling
point ( JFARP) operations.
A Unit in Transition
When the fuel and water platoon
began its deployment at Kandahar Airfield (KAF), it manned a
hard standing FARP to refuel the
brigade task force’s UH–60 Black
Hawk, OH–58 Kiowa Warrior,
AH–64 Apache, and CH–47 Chinook helicopters.
Because of force manning reductions, many of the battalion’s
Soldiers redeployed to Fort Riley,
Kansas. The fuel and wat