Fairly soon after I started blogging on aerial wildland firefighting I first learned about the KC-135 Stratotanker, flown by the U.S. Airforce as well as other international operators. I don't quite recall my what my friend told me about the KC-135, but I did know that she had almost no use in aerial wildland firefighting and that her primary use was for mid-air refueling and hauling cargo. This factoid got me interested so as I was perusing various aviation videos, especially military aviation, I would pay attention to mid-air refueling such as the time the U.S. navy Blue Angels and the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds did flyovers of some major metropolitan areas in April 2020 to honor healthcare workers during COVID, here is my article on the flyover in NY, NJ, and PA in April 2020. I believe, but am not certain that I saw a mid-air refueling while I was watching either the videos I shared or some other videos of flyovers in the U.S. that I did not share. The 108th Refueling Wing at McGuire Air Force Base used to have several KC-135 Stratotankers, the last one, known as the Flying Tiger, departed on September 20th for her next duty assignment in Bangor, Maine. While I did know that there were KC-135 Stratotankers at McGuire, I am embarrassed to say that I did not about the Flying Tiger with her distinctive black and orange colors and New Jersey logo on the tail. The black and orange colors were to honor Hobey Baker, a Princeton graduate who was a decorated fighter pilot in World War 1. Baker died shortly after WWI ended.
New Jersey Advance Media has a nice article on the send off of the Flying Tiger to Banger, written on October 1st, the article may be found here (it should be freely available). Here is an excerpt from the October 1st article about the Flying Tiger, Lawler is Lt. Col Chris Lawler who commanded the Flying Tiger's final flight out of McGuire to Bangor Maine:
Built in 1960, the plane dubbed the “flying tiger” is the last of a group of KC-135 model of Stratotanks that was attached to the 108th Refueling Wing of the New Jersey Air National Guard at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. The Stratotank, which Lawlor described as a “workhorse,” has a boom that attaches a line to another plane for refueling in the air, a neat maneuver at 20,000 feet when you’re flying at 300 knots (about 345 mph).
With more than 60 years in the air, the KC-135 has seen action in Vietnam, Kosovo, and all the conflicts in the Middle East: the Persian Gulf War, Desert Storm, Iraq and Afghanistan. With its huge cargo space, the KC-135 has also been used for medical evacuation and to deliver humanitarian aid. Among its missions, the KC-135 spent several weeks delivering pallets of bottled water to New Orleans in 2006 following Hurricane Katrina.
McGuire's KC-135 Stratotankers have been replaced with the newer KC-46.
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