Refueling a fighter jet at 20,000 feet is an incredibly difficult maneuver that pilots and boom operators of the 121st Air Refueling Wing practice every day. The 121st, based at Rickenbacker International Airport, is the largest air refueling wing in the nation's Air National Guard.
Members of the media rode along on a KC-135 tanker Thursday for a training mission to refuel a B-52. That mission didn't happen, but a real mission did.
"There were four F-16s, they ran into an incident where the airport they planned on going to was forced to close," said Deck SGT Bob Cox.
The crew members of the KC-135 had to scramble to figure out the logistics involved in the switch from fueling a B-52 to fueling fighters.
The F-16s, based out of Springfield, Ohio and piloted by Dutch pilots, were low on fuel and the 121st Air Refueling Wing was in the right place at the right time.
"So we come up planning on practicing, doing some training on the B-52. For whatever reason that didn't work out, something else pops up, people need fuel, we happen to be in the area, there is a little luck and a little planning," Cox said.
This is exactly what the National Guard trains for -- to be ready at a moments notice and on this flight, the training and planning paid off.
"You never know. Always pack a change of clothes. You never know what is going to happen," said Cox.
There are 17,000 members in Ohio's National Guard and they and other state's guard units now make up 51 percent of the Army's manpower.
"We are all a very close community in the National Guard and we work together to make sure our citizens are protected," said Major General Gregory Wyat, Adjutant General of Ohio's National Guard. "Today's National Guard is no longer a military strategic reserve, it has many roles involving Federal, State and Community missions."
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