Refueling Mission with 190th Air National

Guard

August 9, 2006with Dionne Loewen

KC-135s on the runway at Forbes Field, Topeka, KS

They have about 20 planes but over half are not air worthy and will be retired this fall.

This is the truck/ramp we walked up to get into the

plane.

Back of the KC-135 fuel

plane

The section they let down to refuel is called the boom.

I’m in the boom operating room waiting for the plane to come.

The bombers are coming! Can you see the excitement?

B-1 bomber coming in for refueling, I got to watch it come in!

The B-1 bomber is hooking up!

Still hooked up

We went to northern New Mexico. Look at all of the irrigation circles!

Here is the cockpit. The pilots answered many questions we had.

We flew over the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains! The pictures don’t even

capture the beauty.

Here is one B-1 bomber flying next

to us. The other bomber was

getting refueled at the time. This

picture was taken from the cockpit.

I got to sit in the ‘jump seat’ on the decent! It was very cool!