10 Dec 2019

Cramped spaces and fuel vapors: MacDill “Tank Divers”

Tucked away behind U.S. Central Command and MacDill Air Force Base, Florida’s traditional hangars lies a hangar originally built to house fighter jets. On a given day, peeking out of that hangar will sit a KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft seemingly out of place in the considerably smaller maintenance shop, but surely, it’s in the right hands.

23 Aug 2019

Total Force maintainers road trip for KC-135 recovery

The skies were calm over the state of New York as a KC-135 Stratotanker assigned to MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, cruised through the veil of blue, en route to a deployment. All of a sudden, un-commanded flight control movements began to inexplicably shake the aircraft. As the pilots rushed to troubleshoot the situation, the aircraft began to drop altitude.