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Pease’s last KC-135 tanker departs New Hampshire National Guard base

March 25, 2019
Airmen assigned to the 157th Air Refueling Wing render a salute to the wing’s last KC-135 Stratotanker during a departure ceremony held at Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H., on March 24, 2019. The ceremony honored the KC-135’s 44-year legacy of air refueling with the 157th ARW. (Senior Airman Taylor Queen/Air National Guard)

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — The Pease National Guard Base is ready for a new era.

Seacoastonline.com reports current and retired New Hampshire Air National Guard men and women said farewell Sunday to the last KC-135 tanker plane on duty at the New Hampshire base.

The Stratotanker, an Eisenhower administration-era aircraft that’s the oldest plane on duty in all of the U.S. Air Force, was bound for redeployment at Goldwater Air National Guard Base in Phoenix.

The new KC-46A Pegasus air refueling tanker is arriving later this year.

Among the last plane's missions was its part in Operation Rolling Thunder, the sustained bombing of North Vietnam over a three-year period.

“Bittersweet” was the word of the day as several hundred active duty Guard and Air Force members, retirees, family members, and others attended the ceremony.

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