TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. – Ask KC-10 Extender flight crew members from Travis Air Force Base, California, about what happened Aug. 10 over Southwest Asia and they will say it was unusual.
The rare event was a KC-10 refueling a C-17 Globemaster III in a deployed environment. What made the event rarer still is on the other side of the globe, both crews and aircrafts call Travis home.
The refueling was called a “moose match” after the call signs for C-17 aircraft.
The planes regularly meet during training missions at Travis, but both Capt. Andrew Kimball, 60th Operations Support Squadron pilot and Staff Sgt. Calvin Smith, 9th Air Refueling Squadron flight engineer said this was new to them.
“To put it in perspective, in the 150 deployed missions I've flown, this was my first C-17 (refueling),” said Kimball.
Smith estimated the KC-10 offloaded between 10,000 and 12,000 pounds of fuel. Citing a similar number of deployed missions as Kimball, he echoed his sentiments as well.
“It’s just not a normal occurrence out there,” he said. “When they called us, it kind of caught us off guard. Their call sign stuck out. … I was not expecting it at all. I never would have expected it ever.”
The two aircraft met as part of a day that included stops in multiple nations in Southwest Asia for the C-17.
Capt. Patrick Ng, 21st Airlift Squadron pilot, was in charge of the C-17 that day. Leadership with the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, a deployed unit, gave the “OK” for crews to do air refueling missions while deployed that help crew members stay current on their training requirements.
Ng saw an opportunity to do just that and sought a KC-10 specifically. In 220 combat sorties, he said he had refueled just once before.
“Given the opportunity, I thought it would be a great way to extend and maintain my (air refueling) currency,” said Ng. “A lot of things had to come together to make this even possible. … It feels rewarding to be able to put into practice the training we accomplish on daily a basis on our Beeliner locals.”
Ng said during the C-17’s day, the crew flew four sorties during 7.2 hours, moving 98 passengers as well as 34 cargo pallets with a total weight of 116,000 pounds.
Capt. Daniel Jones and Capt. Eric Willuweit from Travis’s 21st AS coordinated the refueling on the ground, too, with the deployed squadron tactics shop.
Ng said they waited for the KC-10 to arrive in their airspace when they spotted a familiar sight.
“We noticed the familiar white tail flash of a Travis KC-10,” said Ng. “While in our AR contact position for the next two to three minutes, we chatted and made small talk with the (KC-10) crew.”
Kimball said they were surprised to be refueling a C-17, especially one from their own home base.
“Our initial thoughts were. ‘A C-17? Don't see that every day,’ ” he said. “Knowing that it was something that doesn't happen often, we were more motivated to make it work. Once we found out it was another Travis crew, it was nice to reminisce on back home.”
Staff Sgt. Ashley Cardillo, 21st AS, said it was “comfortable and familiar” to rendezvous with another Travis crew in a deployed environment.
“To be able to come together out here and work together was an amazing experience because it was in support of each other's missions,” she said. “We had only been deployed for a short time at that point, but it was like a piece of home.”
Ng, Cardillo, 1st Lt. Steven Roshong and Airman 1st Class Matthew Swift comprised the crew in the C-17. Kimball, Smith, 1st Lt. Joshua Snider and Airman 1st Class Brandon Nicholds made up the KC-10 crew.
Lt. Col. J. Stewart Welch, 9th ARS commander, said the rendezvous was a “perfect example of how and where the aircrews at Team Travis are hacking the mission around the globe every day.”
“Giving gas to another (Air Mobility Command) asset operating in (Central Command) is unusual and getting to refuel another Travis jet I’m sure it gave crews on both aircraft a little boost of morale,” said Welch. “It was a story they will remember and I hope they see more of this kind of activity in the future.”
“Every day at Travis, we are accustomed to training with our brothers and sisters in the 9th Air Refueling Squadron. These training missions prepare us to fight the current adversary, while readying for the next. To employ in combat with our teammates in the 9th is both unique and unexpected,” said Lt. Col. Erik Fisher, 21st AS commander. “It gave these deployed Airmen a little taste of home over the skies of Southwest Asia. This story also speaks to the ingenuity of our Airmen – they sought out this combat opportunity to ensure continued proficiency in the core capability of air refueling. It is clear – as Team Travis, we deliver unrivaled combat capability across the globe.”