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903rd Air Refueling Squadron
KC-135Q
4126th Strategic Aerospace Wing
Beale AFB, California
1959-01 Feb 1963
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A funny little story by Chuck Miller, 903rd pilot.
While flying KC-135Qs in the 903rd AREFSq in support for the SR-71 missions in SEA, the tanker crews routinely pulled TDYs at Kadena AB, Okinawa for six weeks at a time followed by 12 weeks at home at Beale and/or doing other SAC type TDYs. The "deployer missions" to Kadena occured every week as two crews and one tanker relocated to Okinawa and another came home. These trips were always flown full of passengers and cargo in the form of TDY support personnel for both tankers and SR-71s, and related baggage and supplies. SR-71 members periodically made the trip on their longer-term rotations. Every trip staged through Hickam AFB, Hawaii, where the weather was always hot an humid. On our westbound departure out of Hickam, we were always fuel limited due to the combination of passenger/cargo weight, hot weather, and limiting max gross weight for the runway lenght available. With water-injected J-57 engines, and a 285,000 lb max take-off weight for the KC-135Q, we had to do a static take-off with all four engines taking water and reaching take-off thrust before we released brakes. Invariably, the end of the runway would pass under the nose before we rotated, and the noise abatement procedure over Waikaki Beach required that we rotate with an almost immediate 15 degree right bank followed by a steepening to 30 degree as soon as the gear was up- quite hairy maneuver for a heavy airplane!
On one such departure, I had an SR-71 pilot riding in the jump seat. Once we got airborne, I looked over my shoulder to chat with him only to find him sitting there with ashen face. He made a comment to the effect that after all his hot SR-71 take-offs, "I never want to do that (sit in the jump seat out of Hickam) again!!!".
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