JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J. -- The lights are dim inside the boom operator’s station as an aircraft appears on the screens aboard a KC-46A Pegasus aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean on July 31, 2026. A C-17 Globemaster III camouflages between the clouds, as it slowly grows from what started as a small speck.
The station is quiet.
U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Javier Garcia, 2nd Air Refueling Squadron KC-46A Pegasus boom operator instructor, watches the C-17 approach during aerial refueling training, while also listening and communicating with the pilots in the cockpit.
50 feet.
As the C-17 closes the distance, Garcia begins calling its position to the pilots.
40 feet.
30.
20.
At 10 feet, his focus tightens. Garcia gracefully applies pressure to the controls. He looks at the screen through 3D glasses as details on the C-17 become more distinct.
“Prior to [10 feet], we keep the boom just straight, level,” Garcia said. “As they get closer, we’ve got to start tracking.”
Garcia begins aligning the refueling boom with the C-17’s receptacle, making controlled movements as the two aircraft fly only feet apart. The proximity is made possible by turning off the traffic collision avoidance system on each aircraft. The KC-46A pilots cannot see the aircraft behind them; they must trust Garcia to guide them and ensure their safety. In the moments before contact, Garcia reminds himself of the training that brought him to that point.
“Stay calm,” Garcia said. “You’ve done this many times. You’ve done it before. You’re trained. You’re prepared.”
Then, contact.
The 2nd ARS aircrew conducted the local training sortie to practice aerial refueling procedures. While no fuel was transferred during the contacts, the mission allowed the crews to practice the same coordination and precision required during aerial refueling operations. For Garcia, the process begins long before the receiver reaches those final 10 feet.
“When the receiver aircraft checks in and before the fuel begins flowing, [I’m] coordinating them coming up to us,” Garcia said.
As the C-17 approaches, Garcia tracks it through the KC-46A’s panoramic camera system, completes his precontact checks and establishes communication with the receiver.
From there, he begins evaluating the aircraft behind him.
“What I’m looking for first is stability,” Garcia said. “If they’re stable, then I look for the closure rate. How fast are they moving? How slow are they moving?”
The rate at which the receiver closes the gap is particularly important.
“Slower, you’re OK. It just may take a little bit of time,” Garcia said. “But fast is where now you have a threat. So, you want to make sure that they’re coming in at the rate of one foot per second.”
At approximately 50 feet behind the tanker, the receiver reaches the precontact position. Once cleared to move forward, Garcia begins calling out the shrinking distance.
“They start moving in from 50 feet, and we slowly give those 10-feet calls that the pilots expect,” Garcia said. “That way they know they’re coming in pretty good.”
Those calls give the pilots in the cockpit a picture of what is happening behind them.
U.S. Air Force Capt. Christopher Williams, 2nd ARS KC-46A Pegasus pilot, said the pilots’ role is to provide a steady, predictable platform as the receiver approaches.
“From the cockpit, we are very much relying on the boom operator,” Williams said. “Our responsibilities up front are maintaining a stable platform for a receiver and not making any crazy changes. We’re trying to be predictable, essentially.”
As the distance closes, Garcia’s workload intensifies.
“The part that requires the most precision and concentration for me is when we are within those 10 feet,” Garcia said.
That distance becomes even more significant when conditions are less than ideal.
“If you’re in the clouds and it gets a little bumpy, now your proximity is closer,” Garcia said. “My concentration starts to focus. I have to make sure that I have a safe distance and that they’re coming in at a steady rate.”
Once the boom is aligned with the C-17’s small receptacle, Garcia moves his hands with intention. He breathes steadily, keeping calm to provide controlled movements. With high speeds and turbulence making the boom shake, precision is the only option.
“Once the boom is aligned with the receptacle, I apply steady pressure on the telescope and steady control on the flight control stick,” Garcia said. “Then, I’m just aligning the two, getting it squared away and contact.”
His concentration does not end there.
“Once they’re in contact, [my] focus stays locked in,” Garcia said. “What you don’t want as a boom operator is an aircraft exceeding a limit.”
Garcia monitors the receiver’s position, including telescope range, roll and elevation, while scanning the screens and indicators around him.
“If you were to put a camera on my eyes, you would notice that it doesn’t stay fixated on one thing,” Garcia said. “We have multiple screens, indicators and signals that come up, so we’re constantly scanning.”
The precision inside the boom station is supported by communication throughout the crew.
Garcia said crew resource management begins before the aircraft leaves the ground. Maintenance delays, weather, fatigue and schedule pressure can compound throughout the day, making communication among the crew an important part of assessing risk.
“CRM is a big factor, and it doesn’t just end in the flying portion,” Garcia said. “It starts from the beginning of the day, before you go out there to start flying. Are you tired? How tired is your crew?”
For Williams, effective communication means every member of the team must be willing to speak when something does not look right.
“Be as communicative as possible, back and forth,” Williams said. “Whether that’s booms to the pilots, pilots and booms, or maintenance. Whoever’s out there helping us generate the mission, if something doesn’t look right, speak up.”
That communication is accompanied by trust.
“There’s a lot of trust involved, from the pilots in the tanker aircraft, to the boom operator, to the receiver pilots as well,” Williams said.
The tanker pilots rely on Garcia to evaluate the receiver as it approaches. Garcia, in turn, knows the receiver crew is relying on him.
“[The receiver pilot] needs to rely on me and have a blind trust that I am prepared, that I am qualified, that I can do what we’re about to do,” Garcia said. “Two aircraft flying in close proximity is inherently dangerous. I know he’s got a lot on his plate and he’s thinking, ‘I need this boom [operator] to be on his game.’”
Garcia must place that same trust in a receiver pilot he may have never met.
“I don’t know who’s sitting in that seat,” Garcia said. “As they’re coming up, we’re trusting each other. I know you got me. Trust me, I got you.”
That confidence is built through repetition.
“What goes into making aerial refueling from the boom [operator’s] perspective look routine is the amount of training that goes into each [operator],” Garcia said. “Countless hours in simulators. Countless hours flying with instructors. Reviewing publications for procedures.”
Recurring training keeps those skills sharp, while simulators allow boom operators to encounter problems they cannot intentionally reproduce in flight.
“If the worst day of refueling could happen, it’s usually that day in the sim,” Garcia said. “You get everything thrown at you. All these different abnormal [circumstances] will come at you, and you have to go through each one and navigate it.”
The repetition prepares boom operators for more than emergencies. It allows them to perform a complex maneuver with the consistency that can make it appear routine.
“We’re constantly honing the skill,” Garcia said. “Because of that, when we step to the aircraft, what to someone might look routine, it’s because the [operator] was trained to a level that you just don’t see in a lot of other career fields.”
For Garcia, the work also brought him closer to the aircraft that first drew him to aviation.
He spent approximately 12 years in aircraft maintenance before retraining as a boom operator about eight years ago.
“I started my career as a maintainer,” Garcia said. “About 12 years in, I decided I wanted to be closer to the planes. I was working on them, but again, when you see it in the sky, it’s a whole experience.”
Garcia collects scale models of aircraft he has refueled throughout his career. Each one reminds him of a receiver, a location and an experience from a mission.
“What I enjoy doing, my favorite part, is the experience of seeing new aircraft [and] seeing aircraft flying instead of parked on the ground,” Garcia said. “How they move. Just seeing it with your own eyes.”
Years after leaving the maintenance career field to get closer to aircraft in flight, Garcia now sits in a dimly lit station as they approach within feet of him.
The receiving aircraft may change. So may the mission, weather and crew. But as another receiver fills his screen and closes those final 10 feet, Garcia returns to the training he has repeated thousands of times.
“Stay calm,” Garcia said. “You’ve got this. You’ve done it before, and let’s do it again. This is what you do.”