European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 13, 1959, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Strip Alert capt John w. Haken kc97 aircraft commander answers an Alert Call in the boy. Ready to go Alert crewmen arrive at the big Tanker in their standby vehicle. Crew checks Tanker fuel Supply before a flight Haken left makes sure All is in order As he. Guides Tanker to rendezvous. To sgt Donald n. Sulentic operates controls of fuel Boom. Pm upper Heyford Crews cover Britain North Atlantic kc97 tankers ready to take off at Short notice Are a Welcome sight to jets with Low fuel tanks by Paul Spiers staff writer part of upper Heyford strip Alert Crew Heads for plane As Crew chief races to wheel chocks. Capt John w. Haken and his me operate strip Alert a 24-hour service station Aerial variety. As the 30-year-old commander of kc97 aircraft is the first to Point out there s nothing glamorous about their business. Strip Alert at upper Heyford air base,.england, is essentially a Job of saving lives and aircraft. Haken a resident of port Huron mich.,and his men Are Good at their Job. Strip Alert which began at the base in february boils Down to this according to col Kenneth w. Schultz base com Mander the concept is to maintain in Readi Ness for immediate reaction a sufficient number of kg97 tankers of provide Emer gency airborne refuelling torn Jet aircraft which encounter unforeseen difficulties. Our position Here is to provide a base of operations for these tankers. On notification from 7th air div that a Jet is in difficulty and requires service we Alert the Tanker Crews provide them with. The necessary information and = seethed on their Way. Aerial service station in action kc97 Tanker transfers fuel to a six Jet b47 medium bomber. 34$ photos by red Grandy the stars and struts i we provide Messing billeting and per Sonal processing facilities for these Crews for Hak Jsn s Crew it can work this Way a Telep Lope Bell persistently jangles at 3 am inn f a boy. Haken wakes up and walks from Rirkis room to the Telephone. Ina half sleepy voice he says capt Haken Here.". A voice from the control room says got one 30 minutes out for  / Haken says of and goes to Wake 1st it Sidney j. Whitebread 30, of Abilene kan., Copilot and 1st it James l. Lee jr., 25, of if Lumbia mo., navigator. As he s doing this the voice in the control room alerts m sgt George e. Langs ton 33, of Paducah ky.,. Flight Engineer. The three no Crew members sleep in Barracks s after his acknowledgement Langston wakes to sit Donald n. Sulentic 33, of Waterloo Iowa Boom operator and s sgt Eugene of Craghead 26, of Roanoke va., radio operator.1 a few i minutes later the three officers leave for the flight line in a staff car monday my 13, 1959 and the three cos head for the flight line in a half ton truck. There s no. Hitting the panic Button Oread scrambling. It s just another Job to do no matter what the weather. The previous morning the Crew had been briefed and had pre flight checked the aircraft. Flight plan had already been filed. There May have been a practice Alert a few hours ago. The paperwork is already done says Haken who has logged 1,800 kc97 hours. The three ground Crew members have the Tanker ready to Fly. Accompanying Haken s Crew overseas Are. The plane s three mechanics t sgt Ross o. Smith a/2c Arthur k. Flesser tand a/3c Thomas k. Slender. Haken gets information via the radio on the Jet s requirements and rendezvous Point. The Tanker is airborne 30 minutes after the sleeping Haken was awakened. Some where Over the ,1 the Tanker refuel theb47 which continues on its Mission. It May have been that Haken s Crew which has off loaded More than a million pounds of fuel since it organized a year ago gave the b47. A Load equivalent to the capacity of three Railroad tank cars. Job done Haken Heads for upper hey Ford. Another Job strip Alert considers routine. At night Dawn Daylight or dusk strategic air come refuelling missions go on atop the world. They extend the Range of Sac aircraft to a Point where the length of the Mission is limited Only by the endurance of the Crew. Every week almost 3,000,hookups Are made. This averages one fuel Transfer every 3% minutes. In one year 250,000,000gallons of fuel were transferred. In Between missions there s an easy camaraderie among Haken s Crew Loung ing around the officers club he says we stay Loose. The control room knows where we Are at All times. We can go to the base Exchange and movies together. Strip Alert works like this for us upper Heyford is the Only base in the us that has it. We cover the British Isles the stars and stripes and North Atlantic area. Primarily we handle b47 emergencies such As gear Mal functions or shortage of fuel. The two Tanker aircraft and three Crews at upper Heyford Are a detachment of the strip Alert Tanker Force headquartered at Lajes air base azores. One Crew Here is on one hour standby but it s actually 30 minutes. Another is on five hour standby and the third Crew is off duty. It works out to four Days on for a Crew four Days off four Days on and so  s Crew Wear Gray baseball Caps the designation of a stand Board Crew most experienced in their Squadron. Other Crews Wear Green Caps in the 98th air refuelling Squadron. The 98th is stationed at Lincoln fab neb., and sends Crews on 90-Day toy to overseas bases. About the strip alerted a Schultz says no filling station has even looked so Good to any Motorist As those tankers do to a Pilot who s Low on  13