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Pilot completes 500 combat sorties in a KC-135 Stratotanker

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Robert Barnett
  • 376th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
TRANSIT CENTER AT MANAS, Kyrgyzstan --  Capt. Brent Helinski recently completed his 500th combat and combat support sortie in a KC-135 Stratotanker. Helinski is an instructor pilot and assistant director of operations, currently serving for the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron at Transit Center at Manas, Kyrgyzstan.

"It's pretty significant," he said. "I don't know of anyone else that has that many combat sorties in a KC-135."

Helinski is deployed out of the 92nd Air Refueling Squadron at Fairchild Air Force Base, and is a native of Colorado Springs, Colo. It is unusual for a pilot to have flown more than 500 combat or combat support sorties in a refueling aircraft.

The pilot has a family history with the military. His grandfather and his father were both military. Helinski himself always wanted to fly. Initially he served within Intelligence, but then he applied for pilot training and succeeded.

"I was on the first sorties into Afghanistan right after September 11," he said. "I've been doing it pretty much the whole time since then. It's just a big number of KC-135 combat missions. That's kind of a big milestone for anybody to have. I'm just a little proud of that."

He said even though it's hard on the family, he can tell the impact his work has.

"I like being out here, even though it's taken so much time away from family," he said. "The fact that we're giving fuel to receivers out there; we're refueling every aircraft that's in the war. It saves the lives of the guys on the ground, and multiplies their ability to get into combat."

The pilot described one situation he'd played a major role in, where a helicopter was losing control in a combat zone, the pilots worried for their lives. Panicked, they called for help. Helinski responded.

Approximately a week earlier, a special operations helicopter had crashed and all on board were killed. The disaster was still fresh in everyone's minds. Helinski knew that to save the day, he would have to act fast. He became the on-scene commander.

"We coordinated help for them," he said. "We got cover for them so they could get rescued. That was pretty cool that we were able to help. The main thing I did was really just calm them down, because they were pretty panicked. They were worried about giving their location away and they didn't want to get overrun by the enemy."

He discovered there was an AC-130 not far away. He contacted them and had the troops rescued shortly after.

"I would say that was my most memorable mission," he said. "Those are the kinds of things that keep you coming out here when it's still difficult back home on the families, as much as I've been gone."

It also helps the other aircraft; they can't take off with a full load of weapons and a full tank of fuel, he said.

"If they want to have all their weapons, or they want to stay up there for any significant amount of time for missions like covering the guys on the ground, they have to get fuel," the KC-135 pilot said. "It allows the other aircraft to do their mission without having to go back to their station and refuel. That enables the guys on the ground to have their cover when they need it."

Helinski loves supporting the big picture.

"When I was refueling the guys who got [an important terrorist], that was pretty cool," he said. "There was also a special operations mission where, having been special operations intelligence, I knew exactly what was going on and was able to coordinate and relay all the communications for the guys on the ground. They got their mission done, got all the bad guys and we probably saved some people's lives doing that."

Helinski said he loves his job and helping people.

"It's really rewarding knowing that we've made a difference," he said. "I've got a brother-in-law who's in the Marines, and a brother and sister-in-law in the Army. One of them is in Afghanistan right now and one just got back. It feels good knowing that those are the kind of people we're helping."