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Boomers help keep the fighters flying

  • Published
  • By Marine Cpl. M. Todd Hunter
  • Detachment. 11, Air Force News Service
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan (AFNEWS) --  The KC-135 Stratotanker helps the Air Force accomplish its mission by providing gas to aircraft during flight. To accomplish its mission, this fuel station in the sky uses an operator with a very unique job who goes by the name of "Boom." He or she is the tanker's boom operator.

Staff Sgt. Larry Nahalea has refueled jets as a boom operator aboard KC-135s for nearly nine years. While he has been stationed at Kadena Air Base, he has had the opportunity to re-fuel the Air Force's newest threat in the sky, the F-22 Raptor.

"You can usually tell the inexperienced pilots by how erratic their control is," said Sergeant Nahalea as an F-22 hooked up to his boom. "But the F-22 is the most stable airplane out there. It pretty much comes in and parks."

The Raptor has substantially more room to park itself than Sergeant Nahalea has to park himself when he's inside the boom pod, an area in the back of the KC-135. It's smaller than the bottom rack of a bunk bed. Sergeant Nahalea has to lie on his stomach to look out the boom window as he refuels each aircraft.

"I'd say it's like a bathtub," he said. "After a while your back starts to hurt, but you get used to it. With today's fighters, it's no problem. They're in and out and we're done."

He knows his job plays an important role in the war on terrorism and he's proud to help support the troops on the ground by keeping the fighters in the air gassed up and ready to go.

"So when I'm in operation Iraqi or Enduring Freedom and I'm giving fighters gas, I know that his bombs are protecting my family and they're protecting everybody else's families."
Even today's newest Air Force fighter can't continue dropping bombs without Sergeant Nahalea and his fellow boomers lying on their stomachs, pumping gas from the back of a KC-135.