'Historic flight': On board 157th Air Refueling Wing's special centennial mission

PORTSMOUTH — Military flyovers, including one that began and ended at the New Hampshire Air National Guard Base at Pease, were conducted nationally Tuesday, a coordinated Air Force mission marking a century since the dawn of refueling missions.

Members of the Pease-based 157th Air Refueling Wing took flight for several hours Tuesday, participating in a northern New England refueling mission with active Air Force members stationed in Maine.

Aerial refueling was first done June 27, 1923 — exactly a century ago Tuesday — by the U.S. Army Air Service. Using a hose, the mission included a De Haviland DH-4B transferring 75 gallons of gasoline to another DH-4B flying underneath it — the first instance of mid-air refueling using a gravity-flow hose, according to the military.

“The technique has since become a crucial component of military and civilian aviation operations around the world. Air refueling enables aircraft to extend their range and endurance, allowing them to complete missions that would otherwise be impossible or require multiple stops,” according to a statement from the 157th Refueling Wing. “As a result, this capability has become essential for strategic and tactical operations, as well as humanitarian relief efforts.”

The Air Force’s mission on Tuesday — dubbed “Operation Centennial” — saw a total of 152 aircrafts, including KC-10, C-130, C-17, F-15, F-22, A-10, F-16, F-35, B-52 and C-5 jets. The 157th Air Refueling Wing used one of its dozen KC-46A Pegasus tankers.

“It’s special to be able to take part in a historic flight like this and to know how far we’ve come as a nation, as a country, as a military from 100 years ago where it started off,” said Col. Nelson Perron, commander of the 157th Air Refueling Wing, during the flight.

The Spirit of Portsmouth, emblazoned on the side with the state’s motto of “Live Free or Die,” was the Pegasus selected to carry unit members and a small group of journalists on Tuesday. The tanker, painted with the American stars and stripes and a minuteman on its tail, is the only KC-46A in the United States with a painted tail and is the refueling wing’s heritage jet.

What is was like during Tuesday's mission

The refueling crew aboard the Pegasus included Col. Brian Carloni, commander of the 157th’s operations group; Lt. Col. Gregg Van Splunder, the 157th’s air traffic control squadron commander; 1st Lt. Tim Guinee, a pilot with the 157th Air Refueling Wing; Tech. Sgt. Matt Rogers, boom operator with the 157th; and Airman 1st Class Abby Stroup, also a boom operator with the 157th.

Tuesday’s mission occurred amid cloudy conditions and rain passing through New York and Vermont, in addition to rain moving through Massachusetts and Rhode Island that blew out to sea.

The journey included flying over Mount Washington, Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, Augusta, Portland, down the Maine coastline and traveling as far east as 20 miles over the Atlantic Ocean.

The weather front prevented the crew from traveling over landmarks throughout southern New England, including Boston and past Gillette Stadium in Foxborough.

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The 157th Air Refueling Wing reported each of the Pegasus tankers, which are replacing the Eisenhower-era KC-135 Stratotankers, can hold 208,000 pounds of fuel and carry a cargo load of up to 65,000 pounds.

The tankers, according to Carloni, can both receive and distribute upwards of 100,000 pounds of fuel during a refueling mission.

“We are very lucky to operate these things and employ them the way they need to be employed,” he said.

Swapping out pilots multiple times during the mission in order for each to train, the 157th’s flight Tuesday involved a refueling from a “MAINEiac” KC-135 tanker within the Maine Air National Guard’s 101st Air Refueling Wing.

Inside the Maine-based Stratotanker, a member of the 101st Air Refueling Wing controlled the refueling drogue by laying on his chest, looking down at the KC-46A tanker about 100 feet below by peering out a small window. As the 101st Air Refueling Wing member directed the mechanism, referred to as the “boom,” down into the receptacle located on top of the Pegasus to provide the roughly 1,000 pounds of fuel, Van Splunder operated the KC-46A to position it correctly.

By comparison, boom operators inside the KC-46A tanker use a computer-controlled system to operate the drogue from inside the plane, not by looking at the plane like those working in a KC-135.

The mission occurred mid-air at higher than 20,000 feet.

“For us, we get to see the progression and the history,” Van Splunder stated. “Tankers are important.”

157th Air Refueling Wing ready to go anywhere in world at all times

Any given day, six of the 157th Air Refueling Wing’s tankers are on mission, with another two on alert status. On a moment’s notice, Carloni added, those jets can begin their trek to anywhere in the world.

“What you guys saw out there, that is how we move planes around the world,” he remarked following the flight. “There’s no stopping in between. You will fuel multiple times, whether it’s over the Atlantic or the Pacific.”

Carloni and Rogers were part of the team’s 36-hour mission that took place less than a year ago. On board were four crews from the 157th Air Refueling Wing, creating a rotation to keep the flight active and prevent crews from tiring out during the mission.

“I’m lucky to be a part of it,” said Rogers, a member of the unit since 2014. “You can’t deliver fighters to the fight without fuel. You can’t fight without this aircraft. It has to be in the air to help out those fighters.”

Stationed at Pease, the 157th was the first wing in the nation to have its full fleet of KC-46A tankers delivered. In March 2019, two months after the first completed KC-46A was brought to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, the 157th Air Refueling Wing received its first tanker. The final tanker in its fleet of 12 was flown to Pease in February 2021.

Boeing manufactured the military refueling jets, beginning so in 2011, and modeled them off its own Boeing 767 commercial aircraft.

The Pegasus tankers stationed at Pease each have a different name. Ten are named after New Hampshire’s counties, and the other two were named in honor of Portsmouth and Newington.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: 157th Air Refueling Wing of Pease's Operation Centennial flight