Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Fairchild Planes Depart For Zaire Relief Effort Fairchild Tanker Crews Sent To Spain To Refuel U.S. Cargo Aircraft

For nearly a week, Fairchild Air Force Base crew members have watched the debate over American aid to Zaire with a special interest.

In less than 24 hours, some 150 of them went from interested observers to participants in the relief effort.

“When you think humanitarian relief, you think air bridge,” Maj. Mark Ramsay said Thursday as he passed duffle bags down a human chain that tossed them through an open hatch of a KC-135. “When you think air bridge, you think tankers.”

An air bridge is part of the U.S. Air Force’s standard tactic for moving large amounts of people or supplies across the globe. Once the cargo jets take off from the United States, they don’t land for fuel until they reach their destination.

They refuel in midair from tankers like those stationed at Fairchild, the world’s largest KC-135 base.

Fairchild sent five of its tankers, plus air and ground crews, to Spain on Thursday to prepare to refuel the cargo planes that will be coming in a few days. They could be gone as long as four months, said Col. Alan Coleman, a Fairchild official who will be the commander of the tanker operation in Spain.

Col. Bill Essex, the new commander of Fairchild’s 92nd Air Refueling Wing, said he was warned Wednesday night to have planes and crews ready to leave within 24 hours. They actually got about 18 hours’ notice.

Even for Fairchild, which regularly sends planes and crews all over the world, that was short notice.

“It means saving lives, and that’s very important to the American people,” said Essex. “I think most people feel it’s an honor and a privilege, even though it is a hardship.”

Staff Sgt. Jim Brown, who handles emergency equipment for the air crews, said he got the word Wednesday afternoon and made the kind of arrangements most people would make before going on a long vacation.

“You just basically try to cover all the bases,” said Brown, who expects to be gone for Thanksgiving, and is unsure about Christmas.

He told his wife and two children to “just go on and do what you were going to do if I was here.”

Brown and others who left Thursday said they’ve come to expect such assignments.

“It’s part of the job,” said Senior Airman Kevin Locasio, a boom operator on a tanker, as he waited for his briefing. “This is what we do.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos