Christmas Day 2016 began with fog on the flight line when the 4 airmen headed for their jet in a transit van. Christmas music played on a loudspeaker as the team and two crew leaders conducted pre-flight inspections, and a lieutenant handed out cookies with aid packages. . The flight engineer, the sergeant major. Aaron, the full names of the airmen were not included in the press release, possibly because they were deployed at the time, said a close-knit team can create its own sense of family circle during the holidays.
“It’s just the 4 of us; Day after day, at all hours, they are by your side,” he said. “We laugh together, we cry together, we get angry with others and at the end of the day we get together. find a way to make the project work. “
That day’s project, similar to many others conducted through the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, whose KC-10s flew more than 1500 sorties from October to December of that year, according to a caption accompanying the press release. The plane arrived at its position near Mosul, Iraq, where refueling operator Senior Airman Grant prepared the boom for business.
“Crossing a sea of white clouds, two F-16 Fighting Falcons emerged loaded with precision-guided munitions,” the press said.
The KC-10 team wasn’t the only one to race at Christmas. At least 3 other coalition aircraft stopped to refuel, adding one flight of two F-15E Strike Eagles. In total, the KC-10 exceeded 108,000 pounds of fuel on the The weight is close to that of a gray whale, one of the largest mammals on the planet, but it is less than a third of the KC-10’s maximum fuel load of 356,000 pounds. However, it meant a lot to the team to help their army colleagues away from home.
“Flying on Christmas Day was smart for us because each and every plane we refuel supports the guys on the ground, who we also miss through their families,” said Lt. Col. Danny, a pilot for KC-10. The fight against terrorism is 24/7 and we will have to keep the decisive air force in the domain of duty at all times, even at Christmas. “
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The gravity of the project didn’t stop the team from bringing some festive cheer above the clouds. The team aboard the KC-10 and at least one F-16 pilot wore Santa hats, but the great merit of the Extender is its two steel furnaces. cabin. These two ovens help refuel the tankers on all sorties, and senior aviator Grant took full advantage of them on the Christmas Day flight, raising the ovens to 400 degrees and filling the plane with a smell of pizza and chocolate chip cookies.
“It’s fun, you know, we eat pizza instead of being at home with friends and a circle of relatives at a big dinner. But we make it fun,” he said. It’s great to see everyone taking the Christmas spirit into the air. We see Santa hats here and everyone laughs as they act and do what we want to do.
While it would be unexpected to hear about a white Christmas in Iraq’s desert weather, footage from the refueling flight shows fluffy white clouds spreading beneath the plane that day.
“As the sun set over the world, a warm glow gently covered the dust clouds,” the press said. “The white Christmas sky turned orange, then purple, and then black. tree.
As Santa Claus returning from a night of existing deliveries, the KC-10 team nevertheless landed safely, completing another successful sortie. For anyone stationed overseas for this year’s holidays, let’s hope their project ends as well as the KC-10 team did on Christmas Day six years ago.
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