A pair of maintainers with the 386th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron took a trip to Mosul, Iraq, to rescue a stranded C-130 cargo airplane. SSgt. David Harrelson and SrA. Brian Kundick, both deployed to Iraq from Pope AFB, N.C., conferred with the C-130 flight engineer SSgt. Robert Alexander, who reported leaking hydraulic fluid. Harrelson crawled into the tail to find a failed elevator booster pack—the device that enables the aircraft to elevate and descend—while Kundick went to work on uncooperative access panel bolts outside the aircraft. It was late night and Kundick could see where security forces were spotlighting for snipers only a few hundred yards away. All in a day’s work—Harrelson noted, “It’s not unusual to find parts that age aboard a 42-year-old aircraft.” They finished the job the next day.
KC-46’s Refueling Boom Damaged While Refueling F-22s
July 8, 2025
A U.S. Air Force KC-46 tanker suffered damage to its boom while refueling F-22 Raptors off the coast of Virginia on July 8, Air & Space Forces Magazine has confirmed, with reported radio communication from the crew indicating the boom “detached.”