There was excitement in the air as about 40 residents of the Altus area gathered for an Altus AFB pre-flight briefing for the Farm City Orientation Flight on Nov. 5. We were a mix of farmers, teachers, and merchants with different backgrounds and interests, but for 3 hours we were united in our goal to learn about the KC-135 mission. Maybe some of us were unaccustomed to flying without standing in line for hours in our sock-feet. Only a handful had been on the Farm City flight before.

Our group was divided in two; one destined for aircraft Gasser 40 and the other, Gasser 41. Each person was given a medical screen to complete and the flight surgeon, Capt. Micah Bahr spoke with a few to review some health questions. Fortunately they didn’t put us in those centrifuge devices they use to train astronauts. I think they would have lost a few of us. There was a wanding process for security, but no shoe inspection or whole body imaging. No checking us for shampoo, as someone joked.

Given informative briefings by Col. Stuart Shaw, Lt. Col. Anthony Valerio, and MSgt Joseph Wilkins, we and our generous lunch boxes, were bussed to the flightline. We climbed the stairs and staked out our seats along the sides of the fuselage. Emergency Passenger Oxygen Systems in olive bags were distributed and we soon learned to take them with us everywhere. The big burley guys looked cute with their little olive green purses. All joking aside, if something had happened, those oxygen hoods could have been lifesavers. When the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU), toward the rear of the plane, revved up we were all glad they had given us ear plugs too.

Gassr 40, piloted by Lt. Col. Brian McGoldrick with co-pilot Capt. Abby Ponn, took off ahead of our aircraft, Gassr 41. Our pilot was Col. Thomas Reardon and co-pilot Capt. Jeffrey Felton. Gassr 41 taxied down the runway to the south, past rolls of hay with the sun shining behind the Navajo Mountains in the distance. We turned left and rolled north, picked up our tail and winged toward western Nebraska. Scarcely a minute later, the world below became a toyland. Sunlight glinted off a miniture semi. A cattle pond became a thimble full of blue-grayness. Lickety-split, we were over wheatfields north of Hobart. A crazy quilt of farmland below reflected different landforms, crops and farming techniques.

Steadily we climbed up to 25,000 feet. It was an optimum day to fly. There was no turbulance and small clouds mixed with a pale brown smaze on the distant horizon. The heat that had built up before take off gradually dissipated and we all began to put on anything with long sleeves. The further north we flew, the more the farmland was dotted with little pie charts, evidence of circular irrigation. Within about 40 minutes we were over central Kansas, if I read my haystacks correctly.

Most of us had gotten our flight version of sea legs by then and were walking up to the cabin and back to the boom. We took turns lying on our bellies on the so-called ironing board to get a boomer’s eye view of the flight. MSgt. Wilkins guided our attempts at pretending to be boomers. Then TSgt. Daniel Beecher took the controls for some serious refueling of an Altus C-17.

Evidence of recent snows was lodged in some Nebraska nooks and crannies. If we’d been able to scoop some up, (that would have been one long boom) it certainly wouldn’t have melted in the aircraft by then.

It seems when people are out of their normal surroundings and roles, their inner-kids are revealed. We were talking with strangers and sharing a new comradery that replaced our adult-induced distance. Perhaps that’s one reason why activities like these flights are such excellent opportunities to learn and understand new things like the KC-135 mission. That mission, in a nutshell is “Sustaining the combat capability of America’s Air Force.” Altus AFB has the only KC-135 schoolhouse in the world. If you fly on a tanker, you’ve been trained here for initial qualifications, re-qualifications or cross-training. It all happens here.

The 135 mission is accomplished with careful management of resources. According to Col. Shaw, since the last KC-135 rolled off the assembly line in 1964, these refuelers are now in high demand. The Cold War ended and now various conflicts require refueling capabilities for our aircraft around the globe. Of the 750 KC-135’s purchased, 350 of them are still flown by the Air Force. Based on 1950’s technology, refueling is only possible through US sources, or those which have been shared with our allies. The service life of a tanker has been stretched from 75 to 80 years, based on various models and lifetime hours used. Air Force strategy requires 520 tankers. About 179 new tankers will need to be purchased to keep up with demand. No doubt tanker crews will be busy for many years to come.