Photo By Tech. Sgt. Robert Barnett | Staff Sgt. Steven Mertens is an instructor boom operator with the 22nd Expeditionary...... read more read more
TRANSIST CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan - The mission of KC-135 Stratotankers is important, particularly those tankers assigned to the Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan. Strategically located, they provide air refueling so that other aircraft can provide ground support to troops in Afghanistan and other places.
Even with the most successful maintenance efforts, there's always the possibility for something to go wrong. This time something did go wrong, and a boom operator, who had never been in the emergency situation before, had to act quickly and carefully.
"I'd refueled a couple of F-16s," said Staff Sgt. Steven Mertens, 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron instructor boom operator. "They came back an hour later, they were doing 'yo-yo' operations where only one comes at a time while the other stays on target. So his wingman came up and got his gas, no problem.
"The other guy, we tried to get him his gas, but there was something wrong with his air refueling system. Basically, because we couldn't get everything working normal, we had to resort to emergency procedures."
The only time these procedures are authorized is during an official fuel emergency.
Under normal circumstances, the aircraft needing fuel will fly up behind the KC-135 as the boom operator lowers the boom tube out to meet it. The pilots and boom operator work together to line everything up, and when the tube plugs in, the receiving aircraft connects to it so that some wiggle room is possible during the fueling.
In this case, the boom tube became disconnected due to a failure in the receiver's system, removing the possibility to have the wiggle room.
They were flying over the mountains of Afghanistan. The receiving pilot had nowhere else to go; he didn't have enough fuel to return to his base. That left only one option, with no margin for error.
"We verified with him, he said he was below 'bingo' which means he doesn't have enough fuel to return to base," he said. "So we resorted to what we call pressured air refueling. We have to keep what we call 'extended pressure'; to make sure [the tube] stays on. At the same time, F-16s are small aircraft. That extend pressure can push them back, so they have to use more power to stay connected. "
The KC-135 had to slow down some while the F-16 Fighting Falcon sped up some. The boom operator had to guide the boom tube to its target, and remain there by the pressure of the two aircraft until refueling was complete.
If a mistake was made, if the F-16 flew forward too much, or the KC-135 slowed too much, the two could hypothetically collide, potentially killing everyone flying, destroying the aircraft and damaging property below from the falling debris.
"It's a lot of pressure on the boom," the boom operator deployed out of McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. said. "If we made a mistake, he could theoretically come crashing into us."
Even though there are emergency procedures in case of scenarios such as this pressure air refueling that took place around July 15, 2013, and although he lacked actual experience in them, Mertens had been trained in them.
"Any error would have, at a minimum, damaged our aircraft so we couldn't continue our mission," he said. "I've heard of this happening once or twice, and I've trained for it, but it's not a common occurrence. We ran our checklist and conducted the procedures. I'd never done it before but it worked out pretty smoothly, we got him just enough gas that he made it back safely."
In the heat of the moment, the boom operator's training kicked in, and the mission was able to continue without further complication.
"Afterwards, it was a really good feeling," the native of Brush, Colo., said. "During it, I just focused on getting things done. It worked out fine."
| Date Taken: | 08.16.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 08.23.2013 04:23 |
| Story ID: | 112469 |
| Location: | TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, KG |
| Hometown: | BRUSH, CO, US |
| Hometown: | MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, KS, US |
| Web Views: | 214 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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