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Tanker crews experience significant combat achievement

  • Published
SOUTHWEST ASIA --   One hundred combat missions is a significant milestone, but until recently, most flyers, including fighter pilots, could go an entire career and not even come close.

When I was a young company grade officer, it wasn't very often that you met people with over 100 combat missions, said Col. James Jones, 380th Air Expeditionary Wing commander. "They were essentially those veterans from Vietnam that were in the senior leadership positions across the Air Force.

Ive been in 16 years and I dont have 100 combat missions yet, added Lt. Col. John Wood, commander of the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron. Its a reminder to me how hard our Airmen are working today, both in the airplane and on the ground.

Opportunities that didnt exist just a few years ago exist now for a new generation of flyers, and tanker crews are right in the thick of operations.

KC-135s and KC-10s, which used to be considered stand-off assets and were generally kept further away from the fight, are now deployed to forward locations. Because they are so close to the fight and have a greater share of the risks, tanker crews receive combat mission credit instead of combat support credit.

We are deployed further in so the fighters that are supporting the ground troops or taking out targets dont have to travel as far and can get right back in the fight, said Capt. Ian Livingston, a KC-135 aircraft commander who logged his 100th combat mission two weeks ago.

In just this AEF cycle alone, tankers from the 380th have flown more than 1,000 combat missions and refueled nearly 6,000 Coalition aircraft in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

The average tanker mission lasts about seven hours, and some crew members have upwards of 1,000 hours of combat time. When you divide that by 24 hours in a day, thats like sitting over Iraq for 40 straight days in an airplane, Colonel Wood said.

I never have thought I would get to fly 100 combat sorties, said Senior Airman Ryan Korhuniak, a KC-135 boom operator home based at McConnell AFB, Kan. Airman Korhuniak, who has deployed nine times in support of OEF and OIF, passed the 100 mission mark sometime ago and now has 150 missions. My best friend and I were in sort of a race. Hes been trying to catch up to me, but he isnt there yet. His friend has 127 combat missions.

Tanker crews rotate to this wing and others in the region about every 60 days. Crewmembers cant pull a normal 120 day rotation because they fly so many hours while in the region, if they stayed longer, most would exceed the mandated maximum flight hour limitations set for safety, Colonel Wood said. Instead, they keep making return trips.

If you look at a co-pilot with 20 combat missions you know that hes going to have his 100th within about six months or so because they just rack up so quickly, said 1st Lt. Matt Ross, a KC-135 copilot who logged his 100th combat mission last week. Lieutenant Ross is on his fifth deployment here since arriving at McConnell AFB in 2003.

Because of the operations tempo, it has become routine to see KC-135 and KC-10 crew members drenched from the traditional post-flight hose down.

I didnt realize I had hit 100, said Captain Livingston, who earned his first combat mission in 1999 in support of Operation Allied Force. I hadnt thought about it really. His crew knew and hosed him down with water bottles when they landed.

As OEF and OIF continue, more tanker crew members will log 100 combat missions, and someone will eventually get to 200. The milestone will become less rare, but hopefully, its importance will not diminish.

One hundred will always be a great achievement, Colonel Wood said. Thats not to say someone that has 98 hasnt done a fantastic job, but a centennial number is pretty good. Its a feat we in the tanker force havent achieved in a long time. Whether its an airman first class or a first lieutenant, its neat to see.

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