Thread: KC-135R art
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Old 04-26-2010, 12:42 PM
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Ashrunner Ashrunner is offline
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I spent my first four years in the Air Force in POL (Petroleum, Oils and Lubricants) passing gas to aircraft on the ground. At that time, the fuel of choice was JP-4, probably the worst jet fuel to handle, ever. It didn't take me long to become accustomed to the smell of the fuel.

Then one evening, myself and another troop were given the mission of emptying two of our R-5 refueling trucks, flushing them and then filling the tanks with JP-7. At that time, every fuels troop knew what JP-7 was used for. Several hours later, we were sent to an out of the way part of flightline and there sat an SR-71. After filling her tanks, the two of us repeated the process of cleaning the truck's tank and filling them with JP-4 again.

That SR-71 carried the tail number, 971. Six or seven years ago, myself and a couple of friends went to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. We had heard an SR-71 had recently been added to the displays. As I made my way through the other aircraft, I finally caught sight of the Blackbird and there she was...61-7971...the same SR-71 I had passed gas to more than 30 years earlier. I spent a lot of time at the aircraft and when one of the floor workers at the museum came over and asked me why I had crossed the rope barrier surrounding the aircraft, I told him why.

He didn't mind as much then. But DJ, you reminded me of something I had long forgotten...the smell of JP-7. It was quite a bit different than that of JP-4.
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