Travis Airmen trains Japan's first boom operators

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Matt McGovern
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Three members of the Japan Air Self Defense Force completed a four-month training program here, making them the first boom operators in the history of their military.

"I'm proud to be one of the first three students from Japan to complete this training," said Tech. Sgt. Masaaki Takahashi.

Master Sgt. Randy Kawasaki, Master Sgt. Etsuro Mizokami and Tech. Sgt. Masaaki Takahashi were selected from J.A.S.D.F. headquarters because of their previous experience as aircraft loadmasters and their language ability.
They began their training at Lackland Air Force Base, Tex. for a six-month-long English language training course.

Then they received a three-week basic boom operators course at Altus AFB, Okla. before arriving to Travis for KC-10 Boom Operator Basic Qualification Simulation.
According to Mr. Earl Winders, assistant aircrew training manager, the students begin with computer based training, then move on to boom operator training on the KC-10 simulator before the in-flight portion of training.

Though the Japanese students train with the KC-10 simulator and receive actual in-flight training with the KC-10, the aircraft they will be using in Japan is the boeing KC-767J.

"Although the Japanese tanker, KC-767J is a completely different piece of equipment from the KC-10, the aerial re-fueling operational procedure and the essence of boom operating skills is the same," said Sergeant Kawasaki.

The classes in the U.S. are the student's first introduction into boom operation and are conducted along side of Airmen from Travis.

"The class required more of a mental demand then expected, especially the in-flight communication. The language barrier with the in-flight jargon and the speed of the language made it difficult, but towards the end of the training, we started to get a feeling of good communication," said Sergeant Kawasaki.

According to Sergeant Kawasaki, Japan won't have a boom operation simulator until 2009, consequently more than 12 will-be boom operators will be trained at Travis.
Besides the training they received, the Japanese students noticed some differences from their homeland in Japan.

"What astonished us most is the diversity of races in the military, the various culture backgrounds allowed us to relax - we felt like we fit in," said Sergeant Kawasaki.

A similarity was the rank structure between the J.A.S.D.F. and U.S.A.F.
"The Japanese rank system is similar to our own, however, our enlisted salute any ranks higher then their own both enlisted and commissioned officers - I salute quite a bit on Japanese bases," said Sergeant Mizokami.

On Travis, training managers and instructors had a positive experience working with the Japanese students.

They were self-sufficient, extremely polite, I was surprised of their knowledge of our customs and courtesies," said Mr. Winders.

The last Japanese student is scheduled to graduate Nov. 18.