Air Force hosts 1st ‘Pet a Jet’ on Saipan

The CNMI experienced its first “Pet a Jet” event hosted by the U.S. Air Force, giving the public the opportunity to explore the insides of two massive military jets that are currently in the Marianas for the Cope North 24 military training exercise.

Held in collaboration with the Commonwealth Ports Authority, hundreds of people both young and old visited the Francisco C. Ada/ Saipan International Airport last Saturday from 10am to 1pm for a chance to get up close and in one of the two massive KC-135 military refueling jets that were parked at the airport.

According to Capt. Tim Shenk, a pilot with the 909th Air Refueling Squadron out of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, he was surprised at the large turnout.

“We are very happy with this turnout. This is more people than we even expected. We have so much support [on] Saipan and so much interest from the public. We are happy to show the public what we’re doing and we’re very happy with the turnout today. We do events like ‘Pet a Jet’ frequently, but I believe this is the first time we’ve done this [on] Saipan. We do static displays in different locations that we are at,” he said.

Shenk said events like “Pet a Jet” give civilians some insight into what they do.

“We want to give the community an opportunity to learn and see what we do every day. We want people to learn more about what we’re doing and just be transparent with the public. It’s really for anyone who’s interested. This [was] an opportunity for them to come out and see these planes,” he added.

Among the things Shenk and his team does is refuel military jets mid-air.

“KC-135s are mainly air refuelers. We provide other military jets with gas so they don’t have to land, essentially extending their fly time, like if they’re traveling across the ocean. Whenever they need to be in the air longer, we are there as support. We could also move cargo, but mainly providing gas is what we do,” he said.

As for Cope North 24, which will last until Feb. 23, he expects to hone agile combat employment techniques.

“My general expectations from our Cope North exercise is to just learn more. We are exercising our agile combat employment techniques and since this is not a military base, your airfield gives us an opportunity to see what other limitations we run into if ever in the future we need to operate outside of a military base. That’s a general thing and it’s been a great experience,” he said.

Saipan Tribune also spoke with individuals who participated in the “Pet a Jet” event. According to a young girl who goes to Green Meadow School, she hopes to become a pilot someday and it was fun to see such big jets.