Veteran Taylor refueled bombers in flight

Posted 10/24/20

Veteran Ed Taylor is originally from North Florida, up around the Georgia line, and he joined the Air Force soon after graduating from high school.

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Veteran Taylor refueled bombers in flight

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OKEECHOBEE — Veteran Ed Taylor is originally from North Florida, up around the Georgia line, and he joined the Air Force soon after graduating from high school. His older brother was in the Marines and the Navy. He went in the Marines, got out four or five years later and then joined the Navy, explained Taylor. “He decided, What the heck. I might as well try something else, so he went in the Navy for another four years.” The boys had one sister as well.

Taylor went to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in 1955 and then was sent to Amarillo, Texas, for tech school. He trained as a boom operator as an in-flight refueling specialist. It took six to eight weeks. He flew on tanker aircraft. “There wasn’t anything to it. Once you got used to it,” he said. “All those guys are professionals.”

When he finished his training, he went to Montgomery, Ala. He spent about a year there, and then the entire squadron transferred to Lockbourne AFB in Columbus, Ohio. That base is closed down now, though, he said. Taylor was part of the Strategic Air Command and there are many things he still cannot talk about, he said. As far as he knows, they are still classified, so he can only say so much.

They flew missions out of Lockbourne AFB every day. During the Cold War, there were bombers in the air 24 hours a day, seven days a week, he explained. “We supported the B-52s, the B-47s. They flew 24-hour missions, and then another plane would go up and relieve them. It was round the clock like that.” This was part of the program initiated by Gen. Thomas S. Power. There were various code names for the program such as Head Start, Round Robin, Hard Head and Chrome Dome, which veteran Nicholas LaRose spoke of in his interview in July 2019. They were doing surveillance and were prepared for war. “The bombers were loaded and set to go,” said Taylor.

Taylor spent four years at Lockbourne and then transferred to Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, S.D. He spent the next 13 1/2 years there before retiring. “The whole time I was in the Air Force, I had the same job. I was assistant navigator. I helped the navigator. We flew so fast that the old navigator couldn’t keep up with everything, so the boom operator’s job was to assist him in navigation. My job was at the rear of the aircraft. We had what they called the flying boom. I’m on the tail of the aircraft. It lowered. It comes down. It’s 20 feet long, and it extended 20 feet. I’m talking as the bomber or fighter came in, I’m talking to him all the time telling him what to do. Come forward, Go up. Go down. I talked him right under the boom. I extended it to his receptacle. The green light comes on the pilot’s panel up front and he flips the fuel pumps on.”

They flew all over the United States to do the refueling. They carried 40,000 to 50,000 pounds of fuel. “It’s hard to remember after all these years, Maybe it was more,” he said. “We had plenty of fuel, plus we had fuel for our airplane in different tanks.”

He said they spent a lot of time in Alaska, around Fairbanks, and were all over the Pacific — the Philippines, Guam, Hawaii, Thailand — then also Spain, Portugal and England. He really enjoyed England and said the people were nice there, “a little wacky, but a good wacky,” he laughed. He also made a trip to Ireland and said it was fine country. They didn’t go into Vietnam unless they absolutely had to, he said.

While in Alaska, they enjoyed the wildlife. “It was all over the base!” he said. The whole family took a cruise a few years ago so they could experience it as well. “It was great. I would go back in a heartbeat.” They stayed a week at Denali National Park. “We got scared!” As they were walking to the showers, they saw a moose eating the top out of a tree. It scared them half to death. It was huge! The park ranger explained the mother had run him off when she had a new baby and he just hung around the park.

Taylor spent 21 years in the military before his discharge. When he got out, he was only 39 years old, so he went to work for the State of Florida. He worked for the prison system, the Department of Corrections, for 20 years before retiring from the state and going to work for a private prison for a couple years.

He and his wife moved to Okeechobee in 1986. His wife, Sonja, retired from the Department of Corrections after 28 years.

Taylor spends his time now cutting the grass, hunting in South Carolina, fishing and enjoying time with his wife and friends.

veteran, Ed Taylor

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