6th ARS named best in Air Force

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Madelyn Brown
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  The 6th Air Refueling Squadron on Travis Air Force Base was awarded the Albert L. Evans award June 21 at the 35th annual Boom Symposium at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.

The award is named after Senior Master Sgt. Albert Evans, a boom operator who died in a KC-135 Stratotanker crash at Castle Air Force Base in 1979. The award is presented annually to the most outstanding refueling squadron in the Air Force.

"We have 43 boom operators assigned to the 6th," said Tech. Sgt. Kenneth Harwood, 6th ARS C-Flight chief. "For those 43 Airmen to be recognized out of the approximately 770 boom operators in the Air Force is amazing in itself."

According to Senior Master Sgt. Randy Kay, 6th ARS superintendent, this is the fifth time the 6th ARS has earned the Albert L. Evans award, more than any other refueling squadron in the Air Force. The squadron first earned the award in 1989.

The boom operators completed a year of historic operations tempo in 2013, with 2,000 cumulative days deployed, 1,800 missions completed, 14,500 flying hours and 75 million pounds of fuel offloaded.

"This accomplishment isn't possible on our own," Kay said. "We need the entire team from our pilots, flight engineers, squadron aviation resource managers, maintenance personnel, aerial port squadron, security forces and many others to fly these missions."

The 6th ARS transported more than fuel last year, with a total of more than 2 million pounds of cargo and 4,600 passengers moved aboard the squadron's KC-10 Extenders.

Each of the boom operators plays a valuable role, from those in training to those that are mission ready, Harwood said. At any given time, half of the mission-ready personnel is on the road. The average deployed time is 200 days out of the year for every operational boom operator at the 6th.

The actions of Airmen in the 6th ARS truly reflect the squadron patch, which pictures a Pegasus above the Latin phrase, "Vis Extensa," meaning Strength Extended.

"Without the aerial refuel capability, fighters may not be able to reach their designated target to protect assets," Kay said. "On the other side of that, other aircraft rely on aerial refuels to provide humanitarian aid."