I was in the Air Force Reserves in 1982. I did my 2 week tour at Fairchild AFB. Flying home to Mather AFB we refueled several A-10s at 42000 feet over Idaho. I got to lay next to the boom operator and watch the refueling. Incredible!!
“””” Flying home to Mather AFB we refueled several A-10s at 42000 feet over Idaho. I got to lay next to the boom operator and watch the refueling. Incredible!!”””””
No matter what branch of the service they serve in, veterans see things and experience things that civilians don’t.
I did the same back in Europe. EXCEPT I was taking a hop from Ramstein to RAF Mildenhall in the UK. It’s about a 1 hour flight.
I wasn’t wearing my watch so after a couple of hours I asked the captain sitting in the jump seat next to me what time it was. It was 2 and a half hours after take off! The crew had all climbed aboard some cargo boxes to get some sleep (not too hot or cold at about chin high in those birds—sitting in the jump seats your feet freeze and standing up your head cooks from the blowers). So I went up to the cockpit to ask the scoop. This was in 1994 during the Bosnian war. We were diverted to refuel F-16s over the Adriatic Sea between Italy and Croatia. I also got to watch the boom operator.
The thing that pissed me off was it took us about 10 hours to get to Mildenhall. I had a single Snickers bar I shared with the captain sitting by me, but of course they didn’t have any food service on KC-135s!
After getting to Mildenhall, I went over to the Bird in Hand for some food (and a few pints). Someone here know about that place? It is/was awesome!
FL420 for refueling A-10? That’s getting up there!