7/12/02 5:36:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time

TROUBLE WITH TANKERS
Chemtrails Campaign Adds to Air Force Woes
by William Thomas

The US Air Force is crying "uncle". After three consecutive hard-pressed
years' flying a multitude of missions, the big jet tankers that spray
chemtrails and refuel warplanes in flight can no longer complete their
far-flung assignments.

Hundreds of ancient airplanes, a growing exodus of tanker crews, and
additional refueling burdens brought on by 9.11 and an illegal president's
declaration of "never-ending" war against 60 sovereign nations have pushed
Congress into approving the costly lease of  additional airliners for
conversion to operational tanker status.

In July 1999, nearly 18 months after North American chemtrail operations
kicked into high gear, the Air Force asked the Secretary of Defense for a
"reprieve" in the number of missions they would have to fly "over the next
six to eight months."
Since then, this planet-wide geoengineering experiment over Canada, the USA
and Europe in a is further stretching already overtaxed tankers and crews
among more than 30 USAF refueling wings past the breaking point.

BOMBS AWAY
More than a decade ago, Desert Storm demonstrated the limits of tanker time.
During this one-sided contest - which saw one bomb run every minute
round-the-clock for more than a month over a country the size of Texas -
KC-10 and the KC-135 tankers conducted some 51,700 mid-air refuelings.
Ironically in this conflict over oil, hard-pressed tanker crews exceeded
Saudi refining capacity to pump 125 million gallons of fuel into tactical
aircraft - and global warming. As a result of this extraordinary effort, as
many as 500,000 terrified teenage conscripts, parents, grandparents and
children under the age of 15 were killed in what later bombing assessments
termed "the most intensive urban bombing campaign ever conducted."
Downsized 40% after a secret biowar that killed at least 12,000  US troops
hit by chemical and biological agents (and sickened hundreds of thousands of
service personnel, spouses and children with Gulf War Illness), the Air
Force was next ordered to commit almost half of its remaining people and
planes to bombing Kosovo.
The 1999 annual Readiness Review prepared by the House Committee on Armed
Services found that the demands of refueling aircraft bombing Kosovo had
once again taxed tanker squadrons to operational limits. Condemned by UN
agencies for causing widespread civilian casualties and the ecological
devastation of Kosovo - while leaving the army and armor of elected Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic virtually unscathed - the sustained attacks
took a toll on tankers, too.
The congressional committee's "Strained to the Limit" report revealed that
Operation Allied Force over Kosovo had "overextended" U.S. Air Force tanker
wings, already tasked with enforcing No-Fly zones over Iraq and Bosnia. Such
sustained refuelings, it read, "has taken its toll on personnel, equipment,
and training."
Even with some 650 KC-135 Stratotankers and 50 KC-10 Extenders in the Air
Force inventory, the congressional review committee concluded that the blue
suiters' "call for a respite raises serious doubts about whether the Air
Force has sufficient forces at proper readiness levels to execute the two
major theater war requirement called for in the National Military Strategy."

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS CONCERNED OVER CHEMTRAILS
Chemtrails were not mentioned among these strategic national missions nearby
aimed at controlling the international oil and narco trades.
But in late June, 2002, Air Traffic Controllers across the United States
continue to report that they are being ordered to divert commercial jets
beneath large formations of tanker planes spewing chemicals at airliner
altitudes that degrade their radars. Given this operations tempo, it is
uncertain how much longer the Air Force will be able to conduct what flight
controllers are being told are "climate modification experiments".
Whether spreading dioxin-laden defoliants and rainmaking chemicals over the
Ho Chi Minh trail, or creating sunlight-reflecting clouds over the US
homeland, the attrition of planes and personnel in waging "eco war" has
always been high. During the destruction of Kosovo, an acute pilot shortage
forced President Clinton to authorize a "call-up" of some 33,102 National
Guard and Reserve personnel.
It was not enough. Air Mobility Command - which provides airlift and
air-to-air refueling for America's armed forces - continued to operate with
a 15% shortage of crew chiefs, fuel handlers, jet mechanics, and other
essential flight personnel. The crew crunch became so severe, key people
whose "hitches" were up, were prevented from leaving the service before the
bombing of Kosovo ended.
Today, the Armed Services Committee finds that the Air Force relies on
National Guard and Reserve volunteers to meet over half of its daily aerial
refueling commitments around the world.
At the same time, chemtrail laydowns continued to tax tankers across the
United States and much of Canada - as well as over the UK, Australia and
other countries of the expanded NATO alliance.

AGING AIRPLANES
From full-power take-off at high gross-weight, through hot climbs to
subfreezing altitudes, and the inevitable descent and jolt of reconnecting
with concrete at more than 120 miles per hour - each "flight cycle" of a
heavy aircraft places high stresses on the newest engines and airframes.
But the first KC-135 Stratotanker took to the air in August 1956! A modified
version of the first jetliner to see widespread commercial use at the dawn
of the jet age, each $52 million reconfigured Boeing 707 carries 150,000
pounds of transferable fuel, and costs $3,448/hour to operate.
Though able to fly at 530 miles per hour as high as 50,000 feet, tankers
normally operate at much lower altitudes to rendezvous with fuel-hungry
aircraft. This means that the broad white plumes seen streaming from
photo-identified KC-135s over North American communities over the past three
years cannot be contrails. As Major General Gregory P. Barlow, Office the
Adjutant General at Camp Murray, Washington explains: "KC-135 jet aircraft
operate at altitudes below 33,000 feet, which is typically the altitude
where jet contrails form."
The last KC-135 was delivered to the Air Force in 1965. Today, the Air
Mobility Command operates more than 442 Stratotankers. Just over half of
these aircraft (268) are flown by the Air Force Reserve and Air National
Guard.
Almost 400 of these four-engine, 46 year-old airplanes have been refitted
with new CFM engines. Born-again KC-135Rs and KC-135Ts can offload 225,000
pounds of fuel (or chemtrail cocktails). Costing 25 percent less than the
original versions to operate, these remodeled KC-135s are seen but not often
heard as they are nearly 100% quieter than the Boeing 707 (which is so loud,
commercial 707s are now banned from taking off from US airports).
Aging Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard KC-135s have also been
re-engined with TF-33-PW-102 engines. Their crews fervently hope that new
aluminum-alloy skin grafts will keep the wings attached to these old crates
for another 27,000 flying hours.
The newer KC-10 is no spring chicken either. A modified Boeing DC-10
airliner, the KC-10A entered service in 1981. The three-engine KC-10 carries
about 320,000 pounds of transferable liquids at speeds up to 619 mph and
altitudes up to 42,000 feet. This long-legged workhorse can deliver
chemtrails over 4,400 miles.
The KC-10A is operated by the 305th Air Mobility Wing, McGuire Air Force
Base, N.J.; and the 60th Air Mobility Wing, Travis AFB, Calif.
Despite these extensive retrofits, on March 22, 1999 the Associated Press
reported that hundreds of KC-135 tankers were being grounded to fix problems
in their tailfeathers. Within 24 hours of the Air Force announcement,
Chemtrail Tracking Center reports of chemtrail spraying across the USA
dropped from 24 to just two US cities. As the big Boeings were returned to
the air over the following week, chemtrail sightings climbed back to
previous levels.

DIAL 9.11 FOR TANKERS
Then came Sept. 11. Two months after a handful of fanatics armed with Exacto
knives defeated trillion-dollar North American defenses, Aviation Week &
Space Technology reported refueling tankers were "stretched thin after three
weeks of intense operations."
Though kept on the ground during the main attacks on the Pentagon and World
Trade Center, from the evening of Sept. 11 through Sept. 13, aircraft from
26 Air Force units took to the skies, flying continuous circular orbits
called Combat Air Patrols over 15 key areas within the United States.
Armed F-15's and F-16's provided 24 hour a day CAP coverage in some areas.
Along the way, Air Force units that normally flew 15-20 hour a day, five
days a week began flying 45-60 hours a day, every day. Many of those
fighters were refueled in the air.
Maj. Gen. Larry Arnold, commander of the Continental U.S. NORAD Region - one
of three elements of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) -
told reporters, "We live and die with tankers. They're heavily tasked inside
and outside the U.S. borders."
Referring to the aging airframes of the KC-135s wings, Arnold added, "I'd be
hesitant to predict how long they'll hold up."

CHEMTRAILS OVER AFGHANISTAN
The ongoing bombing of Canadian soldiers, wedding parties and other targets
of overseas opportunity is being carried out by B-52s and smaller tactical
aircraft flying from bases located outside the region. The strains on tanker
crews tasked with refueling thirsty fighter-bombers to and from their
targets have been further tweaked by assignments to lay down barium-iron
stearate "chemtrails" in the Central Asian stratosphere.
In a peeping-Tom process called tomography, these aerial-sprayed "mobile
antennas" could be used with more publicized HAARP missions, bouncing
tightly-focused radio-frequency energy beamed from transmitters in Gakon,
Alaska to "X-ray" Afghanistan cave complexes. According to MSNBC, HAARP was
ordered to full-power transmission status one week before 9.11.
According to two scientists who worked on this project out of
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the chemtrail antennas laid down
over Afghanistan were definitely used to conduct radio signals to
remotely-piloted drones flown by the CIA. At least 40 armed attacks by robot
planes firing "Hellfire" missiles were made by American "pilots" sitting
inside air-conditioned trailers in Uzbekistan.
In what could be the first cases of chemtrails being deliberately used to
kill people on the ground, according to MSNBC, Predator drones "played a
role in the attack that killed Mohammed Atef, one of bin Laden's closest
aides."
Innocent shepherds and scrap-metal salvagers were also blown to pieces in
the cowboy-style "shoot first, identify later" attacks that saw nearly
one-third of the Predators crash as their operators grappled with the
remote-controlled responses of distant drones.
While the tele-disconnected pilots of these demolished planes went for
coffee, Air Force displeasure grew over the loss of so many $2.5 million
robot planes. Bad inter-service vibes, and bad weather combined to cancel
the CIA's drone strikes in October, 2001.
By then, the first $48 billion weapons windfall had been apportioned by
President-select George Bush to the armed forces - and to corporations like
the Bush and bin Laden's Carlyle Group that supply the enormously wasteful
materials of war.

RENT-A-TANKER
The December, 2001 Defense Appropriations bill required the
tanker-challenged Air Force to lease and convert 100 Boeing 767 airliners
for aerial refueling duties over a 10-year period. According to veteran
investigators Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, "These are planes even
the Air Force doesn't want, or least not enough to include in a list of its
top 60 priorities."
Mokhiber and Weissman point out that it would be cheaper to buy the planes
outright  Instead, the Air Force is being ordered to lease 100 planes at $20
million per plane per year. Converting each plane to carry jet fuel will add
about $30 million per plane. And like any leased Lexus, the Pentagon must
return the planes to Boeing in the configuration and condition in which they
were purchased - at another $30 million or so per plane.
"While the U.S. government will be spending more than $25 billion on planes
even the Air Force does not want, it is refusing to spend more than a couple
hundred million dollars a year on the Global Fund for AIDS, malaria and
tuberculosis. The money wasted on those planes could literally save millions
of lives," these two watchdogs of corporate crime point out.


TANKER PILOTS SEEKING OTHER WORK
Even with 100 new tankers at its command, the US Air Force may still find it
impossible to continue chemtrails missions, along with its perpetual wartime
responsibilities. According to the Congressional readiness report, the
percentage of Air Force pilots leaving the service is up 322% in the past
five years. At least two pilots are quitting the Air Force every day - and
they are not being replaced.
Next year, the active duty Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force
Reserve are projected to be short a total of 3,200 pilots.
Many of tanker pilots are being joined in the exits by crewmembers and fuel
handlers concerned over recent Air Force findings showing that constant
exposure to jet fuel and fumes can cause extreme health problems.
Among more than 40 potentially carcinogenic compounds found in the JP8 jet
fuel used by the Air Force is Ethylene Dibromide. Used in leaded gasoline
until 1983, the potent pesticide known as EDB was outlawed under a rare
emergency order by the EPA.

TOXIC VAPORS
But in 1991, military and commercial jet fuel was changed from JP4 to JP8,
apparently to accommodate more efficient, hotter-burning engines.
According to the EPA's seven-page Ethylene Dibromide Hazardous Materials
List, EDB "is a carcinogen and must be handled with extreme caution." EDB's
DNA-binding molecules are also monstrous mutagens that can scramble the
cellular blueprints of as-yet unborn generations.
In addition, EDB fumes can damage the liver, lungs, kidneys and skin.
Cancer, pulmonary edema and asthma may result, as well as damage to pregnant
crewmembers' developing fetus - and to the reproductive organs and abilities
of women and men.
For the "it-can't-happen-to-me" crowd, the EPA cautions that chronic
JP8-sniffers remain at risk from even low levels of EDB. "Exposure can
irritate the lungs, repeated exposure may cause bronchitis, development of
cough, and shortness of breath," warn the federal regulators. "It will
damage the liver and kidneys."
Proctor and Hugh's 1991 Chemical Hazards of the Workplace Third Edition
found that "accidental use" of JP8 resulted in:
general weakness, vomiting, diarrhea, chest pains, coughing, shortness of
breath, cardiac insufficiency and uterine  hemorrhaging.
Following death, 44 hours later, autopsies found: "upper respiratory tract
irritation, swelling of the pulmonary lymph glands, advanced...
deterioration of the heart, liver and kidneys, and hemorrhages in the
respiratory tract."
JP8 also depresses the central nervous system.
Tanker crews and fuel handlers could not have been reassured by an official
Air Force study on "The Effects of Chronic JP8 Jet Fuel Exposure on the
Lungs and Secondary Organs". Conducted by the University of Arizona at
Tucson in the late 1990s, the tests found "that exposure to only 7 days of
JP8 jet fuel for one hour/day at a concentration of 500 mg per cubic meter
can produce lung injuries."
Since EDB becomes more toxic at higher temperatures, its dispersal from
1,200 degree jet exhausts spells exceptionally bad news for all
"downwinders".
Jet fuel "rain" from what the Air Force terms "routine" fuel jettisoning to
lower landing weights - and unburned fuel spewing from a constant stream of
heavy aircraft straining to take off from airports and airbases - add to the
daily toxic exposure of residents living close to busy airports and
airbases.

PANTHER PISS
Another threat for urban dwellers is presented by Panther Piss. This
nickname identifies a fuel additive used by highly-classified
high-performance Mach 3 aircraft to eliminate contrails.
"Think about it," emailed (an unverified) former Air Force line man. "You
have an airframe flying over foreign land, they can't paint it with radar,
they cant get an IR lock, but they look up and see a nice white line
streaking across the sky. I think you just lost both stealth and your
aircraft."
While this source would not confirm the presence of EDB, he stated that
Panther Piss is "almost the same (chemically) as a popular pest-
exterminating chemical. We all know the effects of those chemicals."
As chemtrail spraying continues drying the air over the drought-stricken
USA, one big question remains for American taxpayers: Isn't it time to start
spending the $500,000 a minute currently being devoted to destruction in
their names by promotion-seeking military officers and profiteering
corporations like the Carlyle Group - on the survival of their children, and
a space colony called Earth?
Stay tuned.
And keep looking up.
William Thomas
www.lifeboatnews.com      willthomas@telus.net