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6 August 12, 2016 News BULLSEYE
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Aerial refueling: Tankers serve as gas stations in Nevada skies
U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jake Carter By Senior Airman Jake Carter Air Refueling Squadrons located out of he has deployed ve times and has
Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington. been on numerous temporary duty
99th Air Base Wing Public A airs assignments.
“ is exercise would be a very short
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. — exercise if tanker aircra would not be “We usually deploy twice a year
Over the Nevada Test and Training able to participate,” said Capt. Tyler as refuelers,” said Medina. “As TDYs
Range, aircra from all over the globe Todd, 93rd ARS pilot. “With how these may vary, we get them about two or
blast through the Nevada sky in a guys are going at it during Red Flag by three times a year. Our deployments
simulated war scenario. In the exer- going full blast, they would probably are about two to three months long,
cise, called Red Flag, units test their run out of fuel within 30 minutes to an which causes us to deploy more than
abilities against some of the military’s hour. at’s where we come in.” Airmen in most other career elds.”
premier aircra while also receiving
some of the best training o ered in With the KC-135 Stratotanker be- During his deployments and TDYs,
the world. ing the aircra of use by the 93rd ARS, Medina has been able to work with
it’s not the pilots that supply the gas hundreds of aircra in the Air Force’s
During the simulated dog ghts, to other aircra , but their Airmen, inventory as well as coalition partners.
ghter aircra going full blast on the known as boom operators.
a erburners can bring the fuel gauge “ roughout my career I’ve been
all the way from full to empty in a Senior Airman Eric Medina, a able to refuel an F-22, B-52, B-2 and
timeframe of less than an hour. When 92nd ARS boom operator, joined the the B-1,” Medina said. “Working with
this occurs, pilots can nd their best U.S. Air Force a er being fascinated coalition partners, I’ve also had the
friends of the sky: the 92nd and 93rd by aviation. He feels he lucked out by chance to refuel the wedgetail from
having the title boom operator. the Australian air force.”
An F-22 Raptor, from Joint Base
Langley-Eustis, Va., receives fuel “ is is the best job I’ve ever had,” Medina is usually alerted when
from a KC-135 Stratotanker over the said Medina. “Not a lot of people can an aircra is 10 minutes out from
Nevada Test and Training Range say they do in- ight refueling. I truly arriving, which is when he routinely
during a training sortie during Red enjoy the deployments and trips I prepares to conduct in-air refueling.
Flag 16-3, July 21. With the F-35B also get to go on. e only thing that I
participating in the exercise, this is the wish was a little di erent is that we “I have a checklist that I have to
first exercise that both F-22 and F-35 are always on the road, so I don’t get run from beginning to end whenever
airframes will participate in Red Flag. to spend a lot of time at home, but I have to refuel aircraft. About 10
besides that, I truly enjoy what I do.” minutes prior to in- ight refueling, I
_____ See TANKERS, on page 7
In Medina’s short Air Force career,
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