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Fairchild Airmen support open house

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Samantha Krolikowski
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE,Wash. --  Air shows happen Air Force-wide to give local communities an opportunity to interact with Airmen and to increase public trust and support by telling the Air Force story. Recently, Airmen from Fairchild visited Ellsworth AFB to talk about the importance of Fairchild's air refueling mission.

"My favorite part of the Ellsworth open house was the look on people's faces when exiting the jet," said Capt. Remington Barnes, the 92nd Air Refueling Squadron training flight commander.

According to Barnes, Fairchild sent a tanker to Ellsworth to show appreciation for supporting SkyFest 2014, here.

"This was my first time taking a jet to another base's open house," said Barnes. "I was amazed at how many people came and wanted to go in the tanker and check out the boom pod and sit in the cockpit."

Events like this allow the Air Force to give back to the community and educate them on what the Air Force is all about.

"Most people were unfamiliar with air-to-air refueling and thought we were a cargo plane," said Barnes. "It was fun to see the look on their faces when we described air refueling, the boom and boom pod and how they imagined how close such large aircraft are during air refueling."

In order to prepare support for Ellsworth, the aircrew team from the 92nd ARS mission planned and conducted an air-to-air refueling with a B-1 Lancer bomber aircraft before landing, said Master Sgt. Ryan Soule, the 92nd ARS flight chief standardization and evaluations.

During the open house, Fairchild Airmen were able to interact with members from Ellsworth and the community.

"We explained how the KC-135 Stratotanker works, what our various missions were and what life is like being a boom operator in the Air Force," said Soule.

During Ellsworth's open house, Barnes stated there weren't a lot of aircraft open for the public, so having the aircraft open made it a popular attraction all day.

"We had a great time and I look forward to taking a jet to another open house in the future," Barnes said.