European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 08, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Friday septembers. 1989 the stars and stripes Page 9 Over Here we re lust an aluminium Cloud Tanker s Pilot proud of plane and Mission h writer a at it / \ Alt. Spain a lighter Pilot Otic of those a lome. Young video game i Ards full of All itu1 Correct Skull Anil with a High performance Lone in his venue. Stood outside the har of the Olti cers Dull talking about his Jet. The engine is just incredible he said enthusiastically telling How the general electric Power Plant can catapult his fighter nicknamed the titanium Innis court straight up like a space shuttle. Apt. Huh la Indrickson. Not so Young and nut so wound up. Was out on the runway watching cargo planes land and talking about a recent scuba diving trip off the coast of Spain. Ten years ago he had his Chance to he i fighter Pilot but missed it. Instead Helies a great hip aluminium Cloud full of a pc 10 air to air refuel my Tanker. Lie s also one of those Guys you read annul who s getting out of the military so he can Fly for the airlines. The Kc-10 is an air Force version of the in to Al "84 percent of the parts Arete same so he figures he won t have trouble finding work after growing up on a farm South of hunks Villa Texas he enlisted As an aircraft Mechanic 15 years ago. Got out Lor a while then came Back in Anil went to Light school intent on becoming a fighter Pilot Oneo the aviation world s Ultra elite. He said lie graduated near the lop of his class. Ass l. Toni tech. Ski. Sloe a. Anderson left Crew chief and i it. Huh 1 a Endrekson Sil in the cockpit of a Kc-10. Sis 1. Law Crew chief is dwarfed by the fuselage of a Kc-10 at a i Spain. Qualifying for a ticket to Fly f-4s. But the air Force did t want f-4 pilots that month it needed tankers. Lookingback now he said the disappointment has worked to his advantage. With tankers it s a Crew. You reworking with people interpersonal relationships a team he , they count a lot on personal individual achievement one on one.1 hey be got to he that Way. You re sending them into gladiatorial Battle and you want them to be the Victor. It a mental game that makes pm. Hard to gel along with. "1 would have eaten that up. And i might have been a Good lighter Pilot too. Hut. In retrospect i like being who i am Tanker pilots conic across As the air Force s equivalent to tramp Steamer captains More Likely to be found playing cards in a smoke filled room somewhere in the tropics than at the officers club har swapping the talks performance analysis data. Still la Endrickson is proud of his air plane and its Mission. He s one of the 29 people assigned to Zarago a s 34th strategic so. A unit that supposed to Gas up every . Plane in the Mediterranean Basin and that also meets up with fighters on their Way from the us. East coast. They think of us As that big Oldal Minum Cloud full of Gas. That s always Hendrickson said of the fighter pilots that his big air plane escorts i Hough the sky like a Mother it s kind of a compliment that the Lake us for he said. We re just an aluminium Cloud that appears i front of them when the Gas gauge reads Ecol. James of. Mills jr., commander of the Squadron said spam does thave restrictions to prevent his tankers from taking olt during quiet hours. evenings and weekends his is the last Chance Gas station for pilots running Low at 40.000 feel Over Europe. The unit gets by with such a Small number of people because most of the giant cargo planes and Crews that Mills uses Are on a two week rotation fro America. Hendrickson. In fact is the sole Kc-10 Pilot stationed outside the United states. Along with pc los. The Squadron lies Kc-135 Strat tankers which Are similar to hoeing 707s, Only 15 fee Shorter and heavily modified. With its tanks filled to the brim acc to can deliver roughly 30.000 Gallons More than enough Gas for the typical family Sedan to drive to the we Don t actually go into the tilt of Battle. But who were the Guys who went to Vietnam and literally towed crippled air planes out of combat areas capt. Bob Hendrickson Moon and Back. A Yugo might be Able to go Law ice. We Don t actually go into the till of Battle Hendrickson said. But who were the Guys who went to Vietnam and literally towed crippled air planes out of combat areas and. If they re refuelling Over Scotland on saturday night guess who does it a pocket calculator would also Rev Eal that tankers Likely Mills tankers were needed during the tortuous roundabout flights to and from 9s6 s libyan bombing raid. But that Mission s still classified and none of the Tanker Crews was willing to walkabout i
