Long Ago In American Skies Part II
I flew to Washington DC on a junket with the National Guard...
We saw the city and learned a whole lot about the organization...
Quick pitch for them...The men and women who are in the Guard are ready to defend our country at any time...They account for over 20% of our total fighting strength...
More on the military and the Guard here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Guard_of_the_United_States
So we left the Capital of our nation and started to head back to Cali...
But part of the mission was to refuel "Looking Glass"...
What is that?
Well, back then it was a remnant of the Cold War...
At any given time there was always a fully equipped military version
of a 707 flying across the skies of America with a General aboard
and the finger on the bomb...
Yes, if Washington and the President was destroyed ,
"Looking Glass" would be able to continue the fight from above...
So, the plane came up under us to drink up some fuel...
I, along with others in our group were fortunate to watch this process...
The operator is like a pilot...
The boom has wings and he literally flies it to the receptacle
on the plane below...
We lie flat on mats and look out a glass window
and watch the plane come under us...
They get really buffeted by our turbulence...
Then the nozzle connects and the juice starts to flow...
It is an awesome process...
Most folks don't realize that the nozzle continually
goes in and out of position...
The fuel passes through the boom in very quick spurts...
Finally we waved goodbye to the pilots below and "Looking Glass"
took a slow turn and continued their never ending mission...
All that ended on July 24, 1990..."Looking Glass" as it was is no more...
Here one sits forever at an Air Force museum...
Today the planes are ready to fly at a moment's notice but are not always up in American skies...
But at the time I got to see a cool event in military aviation,
mid air refueling...
After we landed the elder person in our group came over to me...
He was a mega rich Insurance baron and the had slept at the White House several times as he had been a close friend of President Ronald Reagan...
He said to me, "Art you were lots of fun on this trip...
Just like The Beaver"...
"Hey Wally, wanna go with me to Washington?"
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