Tanker info and lifestyle

[Buddy Spike]

Does anyone know where I can find a comprehensive unit of all Air Refueling Squadrons with contact info (preferably DOS, OSF/OSS, or the DO)?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[Guest C5Heavy]

Hope that helps

19 ARG: 19th Air Refueling Group

43 ARG: 43rd Air Refueling Group

112 ARG: 112th Air Refueling Group

170 ARG: 170th Air Refueling Group

931 ARG: 931st Air Refueling Group

2 ARS: 2nd Air Refueling Squadron

6 ARS: 6th Air Refueling Squadron

9 ARS: 9th Air Refueling Squadron

18 ARS: 18th Air Refueling Squadron

22 ARS: 22nd Air Refueling Squadron

32 ARS: 32nd Air Refueling Squadron

44 ARS: 44th Air Refueling Squadron

54 ARS: 54th Air Refueling Squadron

55 ARS: 55th Air Refueling Squadron

63 ARS: 63rd Air Refueling Squadron

70 ARS: 70th Air Refueling Squadron

72 ARS: 72nd Air Refueling Squadron

74 ARS: 74th Air Refueling Squadron

76 ARS: 76th Air Refueling Squadron

77 ARS: 77th Air Refueling Squadron

78 ARS: 78th Air Refueling Squadron

79 ARS: 79th Air Refueling Squadron

91 ARS: 91st Air Refueling Squadron

92 ARS: 92nd Air Refueling Squadron

93 ARS: 93rd Air Refueling Squadron

96 ARS: 96th Air Refueling Squadron

97 ARS: 97th Air Refueling Squadron

98 ARS: 98th Air Refueling Squadron

99 ARS: 99th Air Refueling Squadron

106 ARS: 106th Air Refueling Squadron

108 ARS: 108th Air Refueling Squadron

116 ARS: 106th Air Refueling Squadron

117 ARS: 117th Air Refueling Squadron

126 ARS: 126th Air Refueling Squadron

132 ARS: 132nd Air Refueling Squadron

133 ARS: 133rd Air Refueling Squadron

136 ARS: 136th Air Refueling Squadron

141 ARS: 141st Air Refueling Squadron

145 ARS: 145th Air Refueling Squadron

146 ARS: 146th Air Refueling Squadron

147 ARS: 147th Air Refueling Squadron

150 ARS: 150th Air Refueling Squadron

151 ARS: 151st Air Refueling Squadron

153 ARS: 153rd Air Refueling Squadron

166 ARS: 166th Air Refueling Squadron

168 ARS: 168th Air Refueling Squadron

173 ARS: 173rd Air Refueling Squadron

174 ARS: 174th Air Refueling Squadron

191 ARS: 191st Air Refueling Squadron

196 ARS: 196th Air Refueling Squadron

197 ARS: 197th Air Refueling Squadron

203 ARS: 203rd Air Refueling Squadron

314 ARS: 314th Air Refueling Squadron

336 ARS: 336th Air Refueling Squadron

344 ARS: 344th Air Refueling Squadron

349 ARS: 349th Air Refueling Squadron

350 ARS: 350th Air Refueling Squadron

351 ARS: 351st Air Refueling Squadron

384 ARS: 384th Air Refueling Squadron

465 ARS: 465th Air Refueling Squadron

712 ARS: 712nd Air Refueling Squadron

905 ARS: 905th Air Refueling Squadron

906 ARS: 906th Air Refueling Squadron

909 ARS: 909th Air Refueling Squadron

909 ARS (Det. 1): 909th Air Refueling Squadron (Detachment 1)

911 ARS: 911th Air Refueling Squadron

912 ARS: 912th Air Refueling Squadron

6 ARW: 6th Air Refueling Wing

19 ARW: 19th Air Refueling Wing

22 ARW: 22nd Air Refueling Wing

92 ARW: 92nd Air Refueling Wing

100 ARW: 100th Air Refueling Wing

101 ARW: 101st Air Refueling Wing

107 ARW: 107th Air Refueling Wing

108 ARW: 108th Air Refueling Wing

117 ARW: 117th Air Refueling Wing

121 ARW: 121st Air Refueling Wing

126 ARW: 126th Air Refueling Wing

128 ARW: 128th Air Refueling Wing

134 ARW: 134th Air Refueling Wing

141 ARW: 141st Air Refueling Wing

151 ARW: 151st Air Refueling Wing

155 ARW: 155th Air Refueling Wing

157 ARW: 157th Air Refueling Wing

161 ARW: 161st Air Refueling Wing

163 ARW: 163rd Air Refueling Wing

168 ARW: 168th Air Refueling Wing

171 ARW: 171st Air Refueling Wing

186 ARW: 186th Air Refueling Wing

190 ARW: 190th Air Refueling Wing

319 ARW: 319th Air Refueling Wing

434 ARW: 434th Air Refueling Wing

507 ARW: 507th Air Refueling Wing

722 ARW: 722nd Air Refueling Wing

916 ARW: 916th Air Refueling Wing

927 ARW: 927th Air Refueling Wing

940 ARW: 940th Air Refueling Wing

Got it from globemaster.de

The whole list of units is : http://www.globemaster.de/regusaf.html

[Gravedigger]

How often do tanker guys do transport missons? Do tankers ever carry cargo while they're on refueling trips, or are the missions kept separate?

[Bergman]

Depends on the unit. About 80% of our unit's overseas flying is moving pax and "light" cargo back and forth. The other 20% is refueling. Other units are probably different.

A lot of times a tanker unit will 'pick up' a fighter unit...land, grab their maintenance and support folks along with some spare parts, then drag the fighters across the pond.

In my limited tanker experience, it's not too often that a -135 will be just moving pallets or cargo around, but I'm sure it does happen.

[Guest Pogo]

My good friends at Mildenhall are in the news just for you this week!

http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123009409

[Guest svrider03]

The -10's do a lot of channel and stage missions just like -17's and -5's. We also do coronet missions like the -135, which are "fighter drags."

As far as the frequency of mission types, that's all variable on AEF and Army Swaps. If the pointy nose guys are swapping, we're moving them. If the army is swapping units, we're in the thick of the stage.

Usually, if we're on "Dual Roles" (meaning both cargo and fighters), it's nothing more than training exercises for the fighter units.

[Mambo]

The guys here at Kadena (the 909th) have also recently picked up the medivac mission...not sure how most of them are liking it. I think they have 1 jet on alert at all times just for the AES stuff...if anyone here is 909th, maybe you could elaborate...

[Guest Pilot135]

Here at Mildenhall we have weekly channel runs through the AOR. The 130s are too busy doing other stuff, so we picked up that mission for them. It's a good mission; 2 or 3 locations a day for a few days in Europe and the med hauling pax and cargo.. goot experience and lots of hours in a few days.

[Guest marykhall]

The KC-10 life is pretty good. Average 7 days gone per month. And one 60 day deployment about every year and a half. Flying hours average 40 while at home and up to 135/mo while in the desert. When we do go on the road, we get to spend 24+ hours on the ground at each location. The fighter guys need extra rest on their drags and that gives us more time for drinking while TDY. The cargo haulers typically spend 17-18 hours on the ground and that leaves little time for sight-seeing and drinking.

Occasionally the KC-10 does do a cargo mission but that allows for a lot of hours with little effort. It's nice to be able to cross the pond without getting refueled. All KC-10s are associate tanker wings, this means we have one active and one reserve squadron per squadron of airplanes. This gives us more bodies than required per airframe and makes it really tough to overwork us (i.e. the family life is very good).

PG

[greg32]

I am looking for info on lifestyle of KC-10 drivers as a co-pilot.

Basically how much will I be gone in a year? Is it a rotation to the desert or out and backs?

Anyone in the community feel free to respond. I would appreciate the feedback.

[Champ Kind]

Can you also talk a little bit about the nature of the mission of the KC-10? I hear it also hauls cargo, as well. Where are some of the regular places that you go on trips? What percentage of the time do you spend passing gas or hauling cargo, or both? Thanks!

[Guest NDwife]

my husband is looking at C-17s or KC-10s.. I was wondering about the lifestyle associated with both. There seems to be a lot of information about the C-17s out there, so I am more interested in KC-10 information. Thank you.

[Sneedro]

I can help you with the McGuire area and/or the KC-10 sim training. Thats about all I can help you with right now as that is as far as I have made it to date.

Hitting the flightline tommorrow!!

[ 04. December 2005, 20:38: Message edited by: Sneedro ]

[Guest Xtndr50boom]

I wrote this in a pm to someone asking me the same things. It's got some good nuggets if I may say so myself, here's a copy of it. Good luck:

1. Depends. As a first year co, expect him to be gone about 150-200 days the first year. He's got alot to learn, not just about the airplane but about how to operate his airplane in "the system". He can be gone a couple days on a JA/ATT exercise with the army/marines, to a week or two for fighter drags. It all depends on the mission at hand. Once he's gained some experience he'll be thrown in an office job. Make sure he stays away from the executive officer job. Pure beauracratic (sic?) hell. Best to ask for scheduling, life support officer, or better yet try to swing a job in training flight or stan/eval. Lots of knowledgeable brains to pick and it counts as an office job.

2. Sounds right. Deployments are to Al Dhafra AB, UAE. Great spot to be in, for the desert.

3. Travis. I spent 5 years at Quagmire and it still boggles my mind how asinine the mindset over there is. The squadron's are for the most part excellent. But the base support, atmosphere, local area are crap. Not that it matters, but IMHO the aircraft are better maintained here as well. McGuire always seems to be one step behind travis for some reason. The 9th I think is the best squadron here. But if he goes to the 6th he will have a better shot at becoming a fast-burner. They seem to be very career oriented for O's in the 6th. At McGuire the 2nd is the best. The 32d is also quality but always seemed a little behind. Staying at the base depends on his career path. ops/ops/OSA-UPT IP, or ops/OSA-UPT/ops. Alot of the guys I flew with at McGuire are now here. They spent their 4 years there and were able to swing assignments to this base.

4. Moderately close community. You know most of the people at the base you're at, will meet the folks from the other coast. Best part is, no one is all in your business. It's really what you make of it if that makes sense. We work moderately hard and party moderately hard. This part all depends on the friends he makes at the base. I still party with alot of the mcguire folks that come here. They're a great bunch, but not full of themselves like some other communities.

5. Being able to fly a 5 hour sortie, land, and not feel like absolute crap. It's VERY comfortable. You don't have to use interphone to talk to the others in the cockpit, you only use it to talk to the boom in the back and vice versa. It's got a large variety of missions, A/R both as a tanker and a receiver (VERY challenging but also VERY rewarding), cargo will take you all over the world and interact with the agencies like TACC and other supporting folks, and passengers. These include DVs. I've flown with DepSecDef Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld, NATO Air Marshalls, the C-DRUNC (Head honcho of the US army folks in S. Korea). That will get you ALOT of visibility from all parts of the DoD. Medevacs are stressful sometimes, but very rewarding as you can imagine. In a nutshell, we get the benefits of doing all that without the cons, ie, low levels in 120 degree southern arkansas, endless stages going to and from the desert, and the endless bag-drag you get in the T-tail world. What do I dislike? Being the "reliability tanker" in the AOR. Since we've got a receptacle and carry ungodly amounts of gas (340K) we'll sometimes just orbit over Iraq or Afghanistan for 12 hours at a time. Boring, but when the shit hits the fan who do they call? That and the timid nature of some of the pilots. Yes, the KC-10 is mostly airliner. But tactics are very important for any mil aircraft in a combat theater. This was more a McGuire thing. They were very skiddish about doing tactics; they literally drug their feet for years over this while Travis has been fully tactics qual'd for years. The one thing your boyfriend also won't like is taxiing. You're sitting 20 feet above the ground, your nose gear is 30 feet behind you, the mains 70 feet behind the NLG and you can just barely see the wingtips if you contort yourself enough. Those are the pains of the aircraft. But a bad day for us is when the coffee jug doesn't work.

Overall, it's a fantastic aircraft, with a huge assortment of missions and experiences to be had. I would recommend it in a heartbeat.

[Guest Tankerclown]

DEFINITELY GO TO TRAVIS.....I REPEAT, DEFINITELY GO TO TRAVIS!! if you can. I spent 7 years at KSUU and I'm here to tell you that it's better all the way around. McGuire is 180 degrees different, you wouldn't think that but it really is. Just my 25cents.

[FLY6584]

First off I did do a search, but I could not find any threads that talked about the life as a tanker guy. Found plenty of threads about replacing our aging fleet, etc, but couldn't find anything about what a typical day in the life of a tanker pilot is like.

I'm really hoping to hear about 135's, but definitely wouldn't mind hearing what the 10 guys had to say either.

I'm just hoping to get some information about things like...

- What would your typical day(stateside) entail?

- How are the missions and what would be your typical mission stateside/deployed?

- What are the deployments like?

- How is the community? Is it pretty close and are the people pretty laid back? Is there still a lot of partying going on like you would see on the fighter side?

Anyways I would definitely appreciate any advice ya'll could offer.

Thanks!

Edited March 10, 2008 by Toro

[Techsan]

First off I did do a search, but I could not find any threads that talked about the life as a tanker guy. Found plenty of threads about replacing our aging fleet, etc, but couldn't find anything about what a typical day in the life of a tanker pilot is like.

First off, thats funny. Especially seeing who edited your post.

- What would your typical day(stateside) entail?

If you are a co-pilot you probably won't be stateside for very long because we are super busy flying right now. After you finish initial training, you'll go on a fighter drag and a cargo run. After that, expect to deploy for 60 days.

- How are the missions and what would be your typical mission stateside/deployed?

Stateside mission is pretty much limited to locals. You may do an occassional CONUS dual role (drag fighters/take cargo).

Deployed missions--you'll take off heavy as a mofo and hold over desert landscaped territory offloading gas to those needing it. Expect to fly 7-12 hr sorties here. Make sure you bring something to read or listen to.

- What are the deployments like?

60 day deployments in Al Dhafra, UAE. As far a deployments go, its definitly not bad. Expect to go every 3-5 months as a co.

- How is the community? Is it pretty close and are the people pretty laid back? Is there still a lot of partying going on like you would see on the fighter side?

Great community. There are only 4 active duty KC-10 squadron's in the AF, so you'll get to know a lot of guys/gals in the -10 community. Partying like the fighter side? Are you joking? We don't have roll-calls, but when you go on the road you can expect to drink plenty of adult beverages, if you like to do such a thing.

[Guest Boom]

- What would your typical day(stateside) entail?

Depends on where you go and if you're flying that day, or if you have a additonal duty. You'll fly probably 1-3 times a week depending on crew pos.

- How are the missions and what would be your typical mission stateside/deployed?

You can do a Coronet (dragging fighters to or from overseas), a Business Effort (going down to Edwards for a week refueling F-22's), Red Flag, we occasionally get Aeromedical Evac missions here at KSKA, and up here you sit Operation Noble Eagle alert 1/2 times a year for a week. We do also get other TDY's that pop up from time to time. You'll also do a lot of "other" training for our strategic mission. You can also evacuate people from typhoons and other natural disasters but AMC would rather have the airlifters partake in that.

- What are the deployments like?

Depends on where you go again. If you go to KSKA you'll go to Manas, Kyrgyzstan We do send a few crews to Al Udeid though. All other -135 bases go to the Deid. Deployments are usually 60 days cause you'll time out fast hour wise. I've seen some people get extended a few weeks after but it's rare. Expect to deploy at least 2-3 times a year. You'll usually get about 200-250 hours each time you deploy.

- How is the community? Is it pretty close and are the people pretty laid back? Is there still a lot of partying going on like you would see on the fighter side?

Community as a whole is laid back. There are some still old Pilots/Booms (especially at Altus) that feel they are still SAC warriors. And you'll get that feel going through our "other" strategic training (think Dr. Strangelove). But overall the community is great. Very laid back. The -135 community leadership is starting to get a lot of MWS crossflows from the airlift side so I think the community will start changing. For instance my next Sq/CC that's assuming command in a few weeks is a prior C-17/C-21 guy. Most of our ADO's are C-5/C-17/C-130 crossflows. Most of them are cool and shake their heads and question why traditional tanker guys do some of the things they do.

Overall it's a great aircraft (Boeing really overengineered it, semi-glass cockpit/great avionics), great people that fly on it (especially Booms!), and a great community.