62-4125 —

This is an RC-135 "Rivet Joint" surveillance aircraft. Most of them are now in service over Poland and Romania looking at what the Russians are doing in Ukraine.

I enjoy seeing these birds still flying. I was a crew dog on the 135Ms from Kadena during 'Nam. 66 trips on these birds. 126 trips total.

Hey Alan, I flew the last ops mission on an M, 4139 I think, out of Kadena in the early '80s. We also used one for Grenada before they got modded into the W-models. Clean and not too heavy, they could fly some very LONG missions!!!

If that was a person, I'd say it has some appearance issues to deal with. Might want to have those growths on the top looked at.

Thanks to the crews flying these birds. I was an orbital analyst with the early Space Defense Center. After determining orbital elements on a Cosmos (USSR) series reconnaissance satellite launch,we needed to know which object in the group was transmitting because that object was the important one, the Payload. That was the object then that Space Object Identification analysts would get to work on for the intelligence community. Warms my 80-yr old heart to say thanks for your help!