PUSHY 34
Story and photos by Del Laughery
Every so often I’m afforded the opportunity to take part in something both inspiring and, well, awesome. While this article is primarily focused on my observations of exactly that, a training refueling mission between a KC-135R of the 92nd Aerial Refueling Wing at Fairchild AFB, WA, and an Ellsworth AFB, SD-based B-1B, it’s my contention that to understand current refueling operations requires a glimpse into the site’s history, which takes us back to a period immediately prior to the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor, HI.
Every military installation has its own history, to be sure. Fairchild AFB, situated twelve miles west of Spokane in eastern Washington, resulted from a gift to the U.S. Government of 1,400 acres that were paid for by $125,000 in donations, in November 1941, from citizens and businesses of Spokane, to establish a maintenance depot there. By January 1942, the government responded with $14,000,000 which purchased additional property and provided construction funding for a maintenance facility that was over 300 miles from the Pacific Coast and separated by the Cascades, a mountain range east of Seattle, both of which provided security from a potential Japanese attack. By March 1st of that same year, with only one of an eventual 262 buildings completed, the depot was activated.
Throughout World War II, the Spokane Air Depot served as a major repair site for damaged aircraft returning from the Pacific Theater. Nearly all types of Army Air Corps aircraft were repaired at the site, most notably the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. By the end of the war, nearly 11,000 B-17 Wright R-1820 Cyclone engines had been refurbished, saving the War Department $87,000,000, by a workforce that was over 25% female. Additionally, the location served as a supply location for other major Pacific Coast bases like McChord Field near Tacoma, WA, which had been established in 1937.
By September 1947, the base had been placed under the control of Strategic Air Command (SAC) (established in March 1946 with General George C. Kenney at the helm). Two bombardment wings (the 92nd and 98th) operating Boeing B-29s arrived soon after, making it the largest base in SAC at the time. In 1948, the same year that depot repair activities ceased, the site was rechristened Spokane Air Force Base, but this moniker only lasted until November 1950 at which point it was renamed after Washington native General Muir S. Fairchild, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff, who had died the previous March.
The decade of the 1950s was one of great change. 1951 saw the arrival of the first B-36 at Fairchild, but the Peacemaker’s tenure was short lived as the first Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (a D-model with serial number 55-0673) arrived on March 26, 1957, and the last B-36 (J-model 52-2827) departed five days later. The 92nd Air Refueling Squadron, flying Boeing KB-29s, arrived at Fairchild attached to the 92nd BW, and almost immediately began preparations for conversion to the Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, the process of which started in February 1958 with the arrival of serial number 56-3613 “Queen of the Inland Empire”.
The period between the mid-1960s through the end of the Vietnam Conflict saw numerous deployments of 92nd BW B-52s and KC-135s to Andersen AFB, Guam. Most notably, Fairchild aircraft supported Operations Arc Light, Linebacker 1, and Linebacker 2. Fairchild units returned home in October 1973, having suffered two aircraft losses, only one of which was due to enemy action.
In 1976 the 141st Fighter Group of the Washington ANG, flying the F-101 Voodoo, was transferred to SAC, moved from nearby Geiger Field (Spokane International Airport), and converted to the KC-135 under the new unit designation 141st Air Refueling Wing. In the years following, both the 92nd BW and the 141st ARW provided a viable threat to any potential adversaries during the balance of the Cold War. Later, between 1992 and 1994, SAC stood down, the 92nd Bomb Wing ceased bomber and tanker alerts, sent its B-52Hs elsewhere while retaining the unit’s KC-135s, and took on the new title 92nd Air Refueling Wing under Air Mobility Command. Now strictly a KC-135 base, with approximately 60 aircraft assigned, the 92nd, which is comprised of four squadrons (92nd, 93rd, 97th, and 384th), is the sole “owner” of aircraft. BRAC 2005 transferred all aircraft assigned to the 141st ARW to the 185th ARW of the Iowa ANG. Since then, the 141st has utilized 92nd ARW assets to fulfill assigned refueling missions. In recent years, squadrons converting to the Boeing KC-46A have sent some of their aircraft to the 92nd, which helps to explain the large number of assets assigned.
On the day that I flew with the 92nd ARW, 384th ARS, we were assigned aircraft 59-1476, with call sign Pushy 34, parked in spot 57 among ten other Stratotankers. When we arrived (after an in-depth mission brief at Base Operations), the crew chief had the aircraft open and prepared to receive us. Preflight checks revealed some small issues which were quickly cleared by the very efficient 92nd Maintenance Group, and soon after we taxied to runway 23 as the flight crew coordinated our departure with that of the B-1, which was not yet airborne, to ensure there would be an aircraft to receive fuel.
With all participants confirmed, and me sitting in the jump seat immediately behind and between the pilots, we took off, making a right turn toward the north and eventually settling on an easterly course. As a pilot myself it was a pleasure observing the coordinated efforts of the crew. The pilot in command and the co-pilot were a study in cockpit resource management (CRM). Assigned altitudes and headings were openly communicated by one and acknowledge by the other with both a verbal response and a hand gesture toward the appropriate instrument panel indication. On this flight, we had two boom operators who monitored aircraft parameters during take-off and initial climb and communicated their observations when warranted. On this day, weather was a factor all along our route of flight and this, along with other events associated with the mission, including our eventual descent and landing, were fully briefed, and conducted flawlessly – a testament to the razor-sharp abilities of the crew and their ground support personnel.
Refueling an airborne aircraft from another airborne aircraft is nothing new. I totally get that. The process, as laden with variables and unknowns as it is, astounds me, but like all military people who have complex and hazardous jobs, the boom operators conducted the event calmly and precisely. After establishing direct communication with the pilot, and once stable behind us, the B-1 was cleared to approach the KC-135 and, when once again stable in the proper position, the boom was extended into the receptacle located just forward of the B-1’s windscreen.
From an observer’s point of view, it appeared to be just another day to all involved, which remained true even when the weather in our assigned military operations area (MOA) over Montana induced some light turbulence and our aircraft’s position relative to the receiver’s position was that much more dynamic. Despite these additional challenges, contact between the two was performed multiple times and the training mission labeled a success.
The venerable KC-135 fleet, now approximately 65 years old – some a few years older and some a few years younger – continues to provide a critical aspect to the USAF’s global reach. Plus, and this is nothing more than my opinion, it’s a pretty airplane and far more appealing than today’s cookie-cutter, two-engine, transport and airline aircraft being manufactured today, including the KC-46. While there are already quite a few KC-135s at the 309th AMARG at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, the Stratotanker population will continue to slowly decline as more and more KC-46s, equipped with its electronic remote boom operator station, located just aft of the flight deck, arrive. While there is no published target retirement date for the KC-135, when the last one flies to a museum, or the boneyard, aviation historians will mark the date. For me, that date will be laced with no small amount of sadness as the age of boom pod direct-observation aerial refueling passes into history.
