Gassing up in mid-ocean...

I sometimes think it's tough getting to my favorite diesel station to fill up when my gauge needle is bouncing on E...Doing the same thing in mid-air over the Pacific at night in a typhoon calls for skills and nerve I could never have...Making a complex problem even tougher by accomplishing this in a half-million pound USAF C-5 carrying 73 Marines and all their gear, and having to suck fuel from a total of three airborne tankers one after the other just boggles my mind...

Quote:

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I called the middle tanker, below me: “What number are you, in the middle?”

He responded, “I’m tanker #2.”

I said, “No, you are now tanker #1 and we are on the way down. Also, just to warn you, if we don’t get this gas right now, we are going swimming.”

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My hat is off to these crews...:hatoff:...Ben

Wow

Good read! Thanks.

After spending 25 years as a Boom Operator I can tell y'all. That is not an isolated thing. We refueled all types of A/C in bad weather. I can't count the number of times that I had a receiver on the boom and lost sight of him because of going through storms. Normally, it only lasted for 5 or 10 seconds but, having a receiver on the boom you could not see made for an interesting refueling. The gauges for azimuth, elevation and extension were very popular during those times.

I figured you'd be along soon for some first hand information, Dick...Thanks for the inside scoop...One of my favorite "boom stories" is still this one, as related by an unknown author in one of his unread books...

Quote:

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Olds was not above using medals to an advantage to right a potential wrong...During his last days in SEA, Olds was part of a MiG CAP running interference for bomb-laden F-105's inbound for targets near Hanoi...They engaged a group of MiG's, and Olds chased one MiG 21 into the path of a North Vietnamese SAM and watched as the MiG was destroyed...

Upon calling for the egress, he found that one of his men's aircraft had sustained major damage, was losing fuel rapidly and they planned to eject over Laos when the fuel was exhausted...Immediately, the pilot of a KC-135 tanker aircraft listening in his track over South Vietnam keyed his radio mike and said, "Negative!...I'm coming to get you!"...

The pilot of the huge, unarmed KC-135 then broke formation from his assigned track, proceeding north to meet the crippled F-4 Phantom, and provide inflight refueling to prevent the impending crash in the jungle below...By doing this, the KC-135 pilot knowingly crossed the DMZ into enemy airspace...

Both planes managed to rendezvous over North Vietnam seconds before the Phantom ran out of fuel... Turning both aircraft south, they realized the F-4 was losing fuel almost as fast as it was being pumped in through a gaping hole in its wing...Leaving the connection intact, the KC-135 pilot pulled the crippled F-4 through the sky to the vicinity of the nearest friendly base in Thailand...

Once within range he ordered it unhooked, and the Phantom landed safely, its only remaining engine dying from fuel starvation as it rolled to a stop on the runway...A week later Olds was told that the KC-135 pilot who prevented the possible loss of an aircrew and their aircraft was facing court martial for unauthorized entry into enemy airspace during that daring rescue...

Olds solved that problem by recommending the KC-135 pilot for the Silver Star in his after action report...After his recommendation made its way up through channels, no more mention was made of court-martial and the matter was dropped...It is to be assumed that the tanker pilot never again had to pay for a drink during his tour of duty if any fighter pilot who knew of the rescue was present at the bar...

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:toast:...Ben

In further news it looks like the 60 year old KC-135 tankers will finally be getting a layer of defensive protection as the USAF has approved production of LAIRCM for the unarmed warriors...Like the B-52 they are still in service, and are likely to remain so until at least 2040 simply because nothing else in the inventory or in the designer's imaginations can do the assigned jobs as well...:usa:...Ben

Very interesting Ben--thank you!

My SIL has told me a few stories of refueling during his 20 years as a B-52 pilot----he was not a fan of the C-5.

We got to talking about the C-5 since I worked on the first hanger for them at Virginia Beach. Creating a structure large enough to cover something that big was not easy---and in the final configuration we made a cut-out in the doors and left the tail outside.