While chatting with voters at the Clark County Fair today, I had the privilege of meeting Bill Schweers. He is a retired Air Force NCO, who served 22 years. We both were KC-135 refueling tanker crew members! He had 308 missions over Vietnam. Bill was on the working end of the KC-135 -- the refueling Boom Operator. We shared many stories. Bill had done a tour at Mt. Home AFB, Idaho just prior to his deployment for the Vietnam war. He shared the story of an F-4 calling may day over Hanoi -- shot up and in trouble. The crew had plenty of gas, so they flew north and rendezvoused with the crippled F-4. Bill was able to fly the boom and connect with the wounded F-4 that was leaking fuel badly. Once on the boom, they locked themselves together and the tanker helped tow the F-4 back to friendly airspace, while continuing to pump it fuel. They got the F-4 on short final to a runway, and disconnected him. The F-4 landed safely, and then promptly ran out of gas on the runway. It had to be towed off the runway. One HUGE save for Bill Schweers and his KC-135 crew! FANTASTIC STORY! The extra fun part of the story was that the F-4 pilot was from Mt. Home AFB, and knew Bill! :-) ***************** We had flown in and out of several of the same military bases, but our paths never crossed. Bill is a few years older than me, and definitely led the way. I salute his service and it was an honor to meet and chat with retired Vietnam vet Bill Schweers. Thank you for your service!
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 05:30:15 +0000
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