Stratotanker has new home at Hill AFB museum

HILL AIR FORCE BASE — What does it say that for an airplane that has flown all over Europe, Asia and the western hemisphere, that its final flight was 30 minutes over suburbia?

It was just a quick hop from Salt Lake City, where it had sat for 1,198 days, up to Hill Air Force Base, where it made one escorted fly-by and landed to cheers and applause.

It even took a specialty team of pilots, brought in from Illinois, to make the 30-minute flight.

To the military, it says that the KC-135 Stratotanker is special. This particular plane, which has served in Utah since 1978, likely would have ended up in the "bone yard" of Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona if Congress hadn't authorized it to leave the Air National Guard base in Salt Lake City in favor of the Hill Aerospace Museum, where it will become the first tanker on display among former fighters, helicopters and cargo planes.

The KC-135 is a refueling tanker and flies support missions wherever it is needed. Refueling during a flight saves time and wear and tear on other airplanes.

Lt. Cols. Paul Pulse and Jim Pauling, assigned to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, have a combined 9,000 hours flying KC-135s and are part of a select group of pilots who are certified to fly older models of the KC-135 on their final flights.

Many of them end up at Davis-Monthan, where they can be picked over for spare parts.

"It's not the best feeling in the world," Pauling said. "We hold these airplanes near and dear to our hearts.

Pulse's father was a KC-135 pilot. It's a plane both men would like their children to fly some day.

Bringing a KC-135 where it can be viewed and appreciated is immensely more gratifying, they said.

Produced between 1956 and 1965, the Stratotanker has undergone various renovations, including a "re-engining" in the 1980s. That process made the KC-135E 14 percent more fuel efficient than the original KC-135A and allowed it to offload 20 percent more fuel.

The current KC-135, an "R" model, can offload 50 percent more fuel and is 25 percent more fuel efficient than the KC-135A.

Currently, about 480 KC-135s are in service, though Pauling and Pulse are expecting to help retire about 25 by August.

Col. Kelvin Findlay, commander of the Air National Guard's 151st Air Refueling Wing, passed a set of ceremonial keys to Col. Patrick Higby, commander of the 75th Air Base Wing at Hill. That was kind of a joke, because you don't need a key to start the KC-135.

Thursday was a homecoming for the plane anyway, Findlay said.

Toward the end of the Cold War, the plane used to sit at Hill Air Force Base at certain intervals just in case it was needed.

Now it will just sit and rest.

E-MAIL: jdougherty@desnews.com