Took a buddy flying today - a fellow 'boomer' from my AZANG days. Gary Duncan was the boom operator that mentored me 30 yrs ago as a young crew member on a KC-135 (A). The A model had water injected engines to produce enough thrust to take-off 'heavy'. "Back in the day" when we had to get up in the middle of the night to fire up the APU to heat the water when pulling 'alert duty' for SAC. The APU supplied ground power to the tanker. The water temperature had to remain high enough for take-off on short notice ... Cold War days. WOW, I'm starting to feel really old.
Flew out for a tour of the 'practice area' south of Phoenix, a few manuevers, and back to a nice aggressive cross-wind landing, high and fast, slipping the Warrior down. Current again - for now.
Lunch and a couple of hours of 'old times' with a good friend. Thanks for going Gary!
