Well, I've raised a Corpsman..

[MillCreek]

Talk about the circle of life being complete.  My father was an aeronautical engineer at Boeing from 1950 to 1990.  In his career, he worked on commercial, space, missles and military projects at the 'Lazy B', as we like to call it in Seattle.  As a young engineer, he did some work on the KC-135s and WC-135s as they were built at Boeing Plant No. 1 down on East Marginal Way in south Seattle.  It is a tribute to the design, engineering, manufacture by Boeing and the maintenance by the AF that these old airframes are still running.  I always chuckle when I meet a B-52 pilot that is half the age of his/her airframe.  

I bet that Gewehr 98 has some nicely-maintained upper body strength from wrestling those WC-135 controls over the years.  None of this 'fly by wire' crap!  Hydraulics and cables and actuators!  That will put hair on your chest!

[Sergeant Bob]

No water injection since the day they left Boeing as a "B" model, we have TF-33's, and enough thrust to get off the ground heavyweight.  No boom, it was never configured as a tanker.  Think Rivet Joint/Combat Sent/Cobra Ball, none of those birds have tail booms, either.  Constant Phoenix does, however, have an air refueling receptacle, and can "swap spit", meaning it can either receive or reverse pump fuel while attached to a tanker's boom.    

Just kidding. I'm an old tanker crew chief, Tail # 62-3551. J57-59W (water injected) engines.
Got a ride on a KC135R (with CFM56 engines) model when I was in Panama (Howard AFB) on an OA-37 (90 lb dog whistle) refueling mission.
What a race car! Another bonus was no need to heat water!

[Sergeant Bob]

I bet that Gewehr 98 has some nicely-maintained upper body strength from wrestling those WC-135 controls over the years.  None of this 'fly by wire' crap!  Hydraulics and cables and actuators!  That will put hair on your chest!

You want to work on your upper body strength? Try cranking the flaps down with the hand crank or hand cranking the horizontal stabilizer.

[chaim]

Congratulations!  Your son made a great choice (well, Army would have been better , just kidding).  

I joined the Army out of high school.  No war going on in 1989 but it still worried the heck out of my parents, and despite being anti-military they were proud as heck too.  I can only imagine the emotions you feel.  Just know that the military does look out for its people, even if it sometimes doesn't seem like it.  Your son may have just started a 4 year "adventure" that will mature and change him (mostly for the better), or he may have found his career.

I envy your son.  I'd be back in in a second if my 35 year old body didn't have an extra 80LBS on it and if it wasn't for my knees, ankle and back

[Gewehr98]

MillCreek, Bob,

Pectoral muscles are best developed during alternate gear extension drills using the bold face.  

61-2667 is the last of the WC-135 fleet still flying as a WC-135.  666 is the Raytheon test bird in Greenville, 670 and 672 are Open Skies OC-135's, the rest succumbed to corrosion or budget cuts.  

I spend a couple days at Davis-Monthan earlier this year, doing the airshow thing and looking for spare parts.  Here's WC-135B tail number 673:



Sad, but here's one that really grabbed my heartstrings, WC-135B tail number 665, now just a tube (maybe I can buy her as an oversized Airstream trailer and live in her during my retirement?):



We did luck out, though.  With the nuclear reconnaissance fleet shrinking, Air Staff authorized us to take former Looking Glass EC-135C 62-3582 and convert her to a WC-135C.  It freaks out people when they see it, because it still appears to be a Cold War Looking Glass.  But she's all new inside, and new paint outside.  The boom's still operational, as are the extra HF antennae.  Here she is at Patrick AFB, my wife took the pic on November 3rd, chocks in place, fire hose about to be aimed at me as I step down the crew entry ladder for the last time.  Note the new equipment mounted on the fuselage above the wings: