Hickam tankers have key role
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By William Cole
Advertiser Military Writer
Flying 17,000 miles round-trip from South Dakota, the two B-1B swept-wing bombers passed through Alaska and near Hawai'i yesterday before heading home.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
The in-flight refueling — this one 80 miles north of O'ahu over the deep blue of the ocean — is a mission the Hawai'i Air National Guard performs regularly, but one the public rarely sees.
A U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber approaches a KC-135 tanker from the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron of the 154th Wing, Hawai'i Air National Guard, for refueling north of the Big Island. The boom operator is Staff Sgt. Nolan Zoller.
Yesterday's 20-hour nonstop flight by the two Ellsworth Air Force Base B-1Bs, which included a bombing run with inert ordnance near Fairbanks, Alaska, was a training run.
Maj. Gwyn Poock, a Pacific Air Forces spokeswoman, said the training is part of the Air Force's "global power" concept.
"We can put bombers on target anywhere in the world in 24 hours," Poock said.
During yesterday evening's refueling, the B-1Bs met up with two of the Air Guard's KC-135s for a boom fuel exchange that requires the planes to be about 15 feet apart.
Flying 480 miles per hour for most of the flight, the bombers slowed to about 360 mph for the refueling.
The planes can use 100,000 pounds of gas in about 20 minutes, and needed to be refueled several times during the trip.
"It was turbulent, but the pilot in the B-1 was pretty good; we only had one disconnect," said boom operator Staff Sgt. Nolan Zoller.
Maj. Pete Fata, one of the KC-135 commanders, said, "It's good to be part of an effort and know you are doing your part — even though you might be thousands of miles away."
As with Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and now with the possibility of the war with Iraq, the "air bridge" across the Pacific provided by Hickam Air Force Base and the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron is more important than ever.
"Can we say that we have been refueling bombers? Sure we have. We have been refueling bombers about every other week," said Air Guard spokesman Maj. Chuck Anthony. "But in terms of where they are going and how many, I'm not really at liberty to talk about that stuff."
Last month, Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota deployed two formations of three B-1 bombers each as part of the buildup for a possible war with Iraq.
More recently, two dozen B-52 and B-1 bombers were ordered to prepare to deploy to the western Pacific to back up U.S. forces in South Korea, Agence France Presse reported.
Maj. Eli Eliason, a Pacific Air Forces staff member and B-1 pilot, said he flew 25 missions over Afghanistan from the Indian Ocean base of Diego Garcia, making the 15- to 18-hour round trip each time.
"That's exactly what these guys are practicing today — the airplanes certainly are capable of flying 36, 40 hours in a row if
you had to, and the air crew members are certainly capable of flying that," Eliason said at a briefing before yesterday's refueling mission. "But you need to be trained. The first time you see a guy fly 17 or 18 hours in a row before he had to drop a bomb — you don't want that to be in combat."
Reach William Cole at wcole@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-5459.
