All the pictures from the Reunion and Squadron albums as well as refueling videos can be viewed on the Facebook page, @TacTankers.
To all our members and other interested persons who have continued to visit this website since it's inception many years ago, we thank you and also our web host Crissy Devine and Amber Woltz. With a great deal of sadness, we announce the end of the Tac Tankers Reunion Association. The Tac Tankers came about from an idea concerning the condition of KB-50J (aircraft number 49-0372) which had been with the 431st Air Refueling Squadron (Biggs AFB El Paso Texas) and was at the Pima Museum in Tucson Arizona. Then calls were made to hold a meeting in 1998 at Warner Robins AFB Georgia with people from all the squadrons to discuss forming a reunion group. Those who were nominated and accepted then formed the first Tac Tankers officers. Today different people hold those same positions that with elections every even numbered year.
Those attending that first meeting voted to have the first reunion in 2000 in Tucson Arizona and go see one of the two KB-50J'S that had survived the chopping block. The next year was Tampa Florida to see the other survivor, 431st Aircraft number 49-0389, which had flown from Biggs AFB Texas in 1965 to the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Ohio. After many years sitting outside in Ohio, it was stripped of all markings, washed, cleaned, polished and suddenly emerged as a 421st Air Refueling Squadron (Yokota AB Japan) KB-50J with aircraft number 48-0114. Then in 1998 it was dismantled and trucked down to MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida for their small airpark. The Tac Tankers first tried in 2006 to get MacDill AFB to let the plane go to the Air Mobility Museum in Dover Delaware to be restored since it was not being maintained. This went on until December 2017 when the Wing Commander at MacDill agreed to release 49-0389 and let it go to the AMC Museum. After years of salt air exposure, the condition of 389 had severely degraded, but AMC and their volunteers took on the task of saving this part of the Air Force Refueling history. Those that attended this final reunion had the honor of meeting many of those volunteers who have been helping with the restoration and had also felt the same devotion we did to keep our history from fading away.
A big "Thanks to our members, the AMC museum staff, the dedicated volunteers, Active duty and Reserve Air Force personnel from Dover AFB that have all put in many hours to save our plane. After a 21 year run, we say goodbye, but one day look forward to when all the work is completed and 49-0389 once again shines.
Those attending that first meeting voted to have the first reunion in 2000 in Tucson Arizona and go see one of the two KB-50J'S that had survived the chopping block. The next year was Tampa Florida to see the other survivor, 431st Aircraft number 49-0389, which had flown from Biggs AFB Texas in 1965 to the National Museum of the Air Force at Wright-Patterson Ohio. After many years sitting outside in Ohio, it was stripped of all markings, washed, cleaned, polished and suddenly emerged as a 421st Air Refueling Squadron (Yokota AB Japan) KB-50J with aircraft number 48-0114. Then in 1998 it was dismantled and trucked down to MacDill AFB in Tampa Florida for their small airpark. The Tac Tankers first tried in 2006 to get MacDill AFB to let the plane go to the Air Mobility Museum in Dover Delaware to be restored since it was not being maintained. This went on until December 2017 when the Wing Commander at MacDill agreed to release 49-0389 and let it go to the AMC Museum. After years of salt air exposure, the condition of 389 had severely degraded, but AMC and their volunteers took on the task of saving this part of the Air Force Refueling history. Those that attended this final reunion had the honor of meeting many of those volunteers who have been helping with the restoration and had also felt the same devotion we did to keep our history from fading away.
A big "Thanks to our members, the AMC museum staff, the dedicated volunteers, Active duty and Reserve Air Force personnel from Dover AFB that have all put in many hours to save our plane. After a 21 year run, we say goodbye, but one day look forward to when all the work is completed and 49-0389 once again shines.
TAC Tankers Association Memorial at Memorial Park at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force
Dayton, Ohio
