Fast and efficient refueling

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher Gross
  • 3rd Wing Public Affairs
ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska --  November 12, 1921, was the first actual recorded fuel transfer from one aircraft to another. 

Although, it did require a man to get out of the aircraft he was in, and carry a can of fuel on his back so that he could then pour it into the counter plane. 

90 years later aerial refueling has become strictly a military trade and easier and faster than it has ever been in the past. Some people whose actions speak for this truth are the 168 Air Refueling Wing, from Eielson Air Force Base, who performs more Homeland Defense Air Refueling missions than any other Air National Guard Unit in the country. 

A member from this successful team is boom operator Chief Master Sgt. Paul Nunemann, ARS chief, who has been serving for the past 23 years and at Eielson for the past 20 years. 

Nunemann himself says he has put in 3,500-4,000 hours toward refueling missions.
The aircraft that is used for those thousands of hours of refueling is the KC-135R Stratotanker, which is "the latest and greatest aeronautics upgrades," said Nunemann.
Nunemann who spent five years active duty and has since been a boom operator for the past 15 years said, "(This is the) best job in the Air Force as far as I'm concerned." 

Boom operators control a system that lowers a large-diameter pipe with an attached wing connected to the rear of the KC-135. While traveling at a rate between 345-362 miles per hour and 20,000 feet up in the air, Nunemann radioed back and forth with a fighter pilot, from the 90 Fighter Squadron here, to make a good connection and start to get the fuel flowing at around 1,800 pounds per minute. 

Although the "Boeing Boom" is what's consistently used today as a refueling method due to it's high pumping speed it's not the only one. There was also the "probe and drogue" system where a small plane was equipped with a probe that could be plugged into a drogue. For many years both systems where used, but the boom has been favored for quite some time now. 

That's why it's so important to have such an efficient refueling method. So we can accomplish a successful operational readiness, said Nuemann. 

All year long members of the 168 ARS prepare for local, state, national and global emergencies, but hopes they don't have to see any..