February 27th, 2008 12:02 PM Eastern
Amazing Picture!
by Janice Dean
Gwen writes this:
Since you like pictures so well, I thought I’d forward this one to you. My son, Nickolas Walton, is a member of Security Forces with the Mississippi Air National Guard, 186th Air Refueling Wing. His best friend, Chris Woods, is a boom operator on a refueler. This is a picture Chris took when the Thunderbirds were flying from Nellis AFB in Las Vegas to Daytona for the race weekend before last. Chris actually refueled each of their planes. How cool is that!!!
I am so impressed Gwen! And gorgeous clouds below I might add! Thank you for sending for all of us to enjoy…
Coolest picture to date Janice! I love it, thanks to you for sharing. Gwen and her son! I am thankful to both of them!
Gwen..
That is a great picture..thanks to you a your son for sharing that with us..I know you are very proud of him..
deb in tn
Glad y’all like the picture. It was just too good not to share. Yes, Deb, I’m proud of all 4 of my sons. They are really good young men. Not perfect, mind you; but really good.
As to the situation from yesterday that I wrote about, it was a suicide. You can read the news coverage at http://www.meridianstar.com. That’s our local newspaper. Just tragic to lose one so young and so unnecessarily.
Hope your day is as blessed as mine!
Gwen! I showed my hubby that picture and he was soooooo impressed! Thank you for sharing!
Gwen!!..
What a GREAT SHOT!!….
Please tell your son and his friend thanks…and not just for the pic either….
That is such an amazing picture Gwen, thank you.
We as a nation should feel very fortunate to have such dedicated and skillful people serving in our armed forces.
You are absolutely right Bill! Well said.
gwen that is a great picture ,our Mississippi Air National Guard is the best
I’m freezing about 100 miles up 45 outside west point from you
janice please send SPRING
would you beleive my kids Golf coach had them out playing 9 holes yesterday from three thirty till six
windy 30 miles an hour gust ,drizzle and Cold there hands were blue when they got in the car temp was about 38
Thank you Gwen: what an impressive picture!!
This is actually my favorite feeling when you fly: taking off by gray rainy weather and reaching beyond the clouds to find a perfect blue sunny sky above all!
You wrote Chris is a “boom operator” on a refueler.
I never heard about it before (but Iike the choice of words!).
If you don’t mind my asking, what is a “boom operator” and what is his job and responsibility on a refueler?
(although I love aviation, I’m very clueless!)
And it’s kind of a naive question but how do they refuel the jets?
How close do the jets need to get to the refueler plane? and does the refueling go through special pipes hanging?!
It’s fascinating just to think of it…
kuddoes to your sons and their friends.
Guillaume
Gwen – Thanks for sharing … The T-birds are my favorite precision flying team …
The Thunderbirds got a huge round of applause at the Daytona 500 whilst doing the flyover prior to the start of the race …
They’re also scheduled to do the flyover on Sunday during the opening ceremonies for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race in Vegas …
The picture of the plane in this story will blow you away …
http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20080227/BIZ/741951543/0/RSS01
The pilot got fired for doing an unapproved flyby at Paine Field in Everett, WA …
The odd looking plane in the background … white body with blue tail … That’s the DreamLifter … It’s a converted 747 that’s being used to haul in fuselage parts for the Boeing 787 … The DreamLifter is sooooo loud & flies low when it’s coming in & out of Paine Field … It always shakes my house when it comes in as I’m right under it’s flight path … First time I heard it, I kept waiting for an explosion cause it really sounded like a plane was gonna crash into my neighborhood …
For Guillame and any one else interested, this is what a refueler is and what a boom operator does (in my very limited, highly non-technical understanding of the operation):
A refueler is a large plane that carries jet fuel. It’s like a huge filling station in the sky. The boom operator is the gas station attendant. He lies in a glassed-in pod on the underbelly of the refueler. His job is to lower the boom, which dispenses the fuel. The jet receiving the fuel flies up underneath and slightly behind the refueler. The boom operator drops the boom and it attaches to the receiving jet at a port opening on the top nose portion of the jet. He fills their tanks and away they go. Exactly how they do it, I don’t know. It still amazes me every time I see a picture of them doing it. I’ll have to ask my son about how close they actually get to one another, but it’s pretty close. Perhaps Janice could ask Greg Kelly, since he’s a jet pilot. Refueling is the mission of the 186th MSANG, and they stay busy refueling planes every day. It kind of blows me away to think they are doing this every day in the skies above us, and we don’t even realize it.
I do have another picture of the actual fueling going on. I’ll have to see if I can get it uploaded, or downloaded, or whatever the heck it is I need to do.
oh waoooo very impressive Gwen!
Thank you so much for all the explanations . I had no idea!
It is indeed FASCINATING!
and yes you can certainly be proud of what your son and his colleagues do every day!
Please download the other picture when you have time !!
Guillaume