[Phrenzy]

When they were still flying, I worked on them at Beale AFB. You always knew when an SR was going to take off. About an hour prior, 2 KC-135Q's would take off like a bat out of hell. They would always use water injection and you could see their black smoke trails.

An hour later, you would hear a giant rumbling coming from the flight line. It would get louder and louder until it was all you could hear. As the SR shot off into the distance, you could slowly make out the din of all the car alarms on base.

They would sometimes need 4 tankers and they would shoot off in pairs. I was told they always had two tankers per fill up. They would grab some from one and then some more from the other.

Back in the 90's it was estimated that each SR flight had a cost of at least a million dollars with fuel costs, wages, etc.