Air Force veteran reunited with old friend after 60 years b-roll

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Video by Senior Master Sgt. Vincent De Groot

Air Force veteran reunited with old friend after 60 years b-roll

185th Air Refueling Wing, Iowa Air National Guard

March 30, 2023 | 12:35

B-roll video shows Veteran Air Force crew chief and Omaha Neb. resident Richard Devine touring a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker that he once crewed over 60 years ago.

The aircraft Devine toured is a U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker tail number 58-0057 that is still in service at the Iowa Air National Guard’s 185th Air Refueling Wing in nearby Sioux City, Iowa.

Master Sgt. Jamie Bethune met Devine on the flightline in Sioux City where they toured the updated KC-135 while sharing related experiences with the mid-air refueling aircraft.

Divine said he crewed the KC-135 while he was stationed at Loring Air Force Base in Maine at the height of the Cold War in the late 1950’s.

New Stratotankers were being built during the time of Devine’s enlistment from 1958 through 1963 making Devine one of the first-generation of KC-135 maintainers.

Devine was part of the 42nd Air Refueling Squadron at Loring AFB where the mission had KC-135 co-located with B-52s flying continuous airborne alert along large parts of the Arctic region near the border of the Soviet Union Operation Chrome Dome.

Even at age 82 Devine declined to use the airstair parked alongside the aircraft and opted to use the ladder to get up into the crew hatch in order to re-live some of his history with the jet.

Air Force KC-135s remaining in the inventory have been re-engined, re-skinned and mostly re-made into a different aircraft compared to the original “A” model of Devine’s time.

About half of the original fleet of just over 700 KC-135s are still flying with the majority now in the Air National Guard.

Regular maintenance and constant care by maintainers like Devine and Bethune have kept the KC-135 in continuous service for six decades.