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On Wednesday 18 Jun 2003 I had the priviledge of flying with the crew of "Chena 72", a KC-135R Stratotanker of the 168th Air Refueling Wing of the Alaska Air National Guard (based at Eielson Air Force Base) on a refueling mission over St PauI Island located off the south west coast of Alaska where we pumped 90,000 pounds of fuel into a C-17 cargo jet from McChord AFB that was headed for Japan. The mission lasted about four hours. Since I was the only media person on board I was able to ride in the cockpit and during the refueling I had the boom operators' station in the rear of the aircraft all to myself (except for the Boom Operator of course).
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| PILOT & CO-PILOT |
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| NAVIGATOR |
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| THE BOOM OPERATOR - WORKS ON HIS BELLY IN THE REAR OF THE TANKER |
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| THE BOOM CONNECTS TO THE "RECEIVER" AND FUEL IS PUMPED THROUGH IT |
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| THE "RECEIVER" |
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| FILL ER UP AND DON'T FORGET TO CHECK UNDER THE HOOD |
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| CLOSE UP OF THE BOOM HOOK UP |
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