{"id":405406,"date":"2024-02-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-19T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=405406"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"Air-Force-hosts-1st-Pet-a-Jet-on-Saipan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/Air-Force-hosts-1st-Pet-a-Jet-on-Saipan\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Force hosts 1st \u2018Pet a Jet\u2019 on Saipan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The CNMI experienced its first \u201cPet a Jet\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019re doing and we\u2019re very happy with the turnout today. We do events like \u2018Pet a Jet\u2019 frequently, but I believe this is the first time we\u2019ve done this [on] Saipan. We do static displays in different locations that we are at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shenk said events like \u201cPet a Jet\u201d give civilians some insight into what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019re doing and just be transparent with the public. It\u2019s really for anyone who\u2019s interested. This [was] an opportunity for them to come out and see these planes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Among the things Shenk and his team does is refuel military jets mid-air.<\/p>\n

\u201cKC-135s are mainly air refuelers. We provide other military jets with gas so they don\u2019t have to land, essentially extending their fly time, like if they\u2019re 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for Cope North 24, which will last until Feb. 23, he expects to hone agile combat employment techniques.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy 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\u2019s a general thing and it\u2019s been a great experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Saipan Tribune<\/em> also spoke with individuals who participated in the \u201cPet a Jet\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Two KC-135s were open to the public for exploration during last Saturday’s “Pet a Jet” event hosted by the U.S. Air Force in conjunction with the Commonwealth Ports Authority.<\/p>\n

-KIMBERLY B. ESMORES
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Two KC-135s were open to the public for exploration during last Saturday’s “Pet a Jet” event hosted by the U.S. Air Force in conjunction with the Commonwealth Ports Authority.<\/p>\n

-KIMBERLY B. ESMORES
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

The CNMI experienced its first “Pet a Jet” event last Saturday where members of the general public were given the opportunity to explore the inside of two KC-135 refueling jets. These jets are capable of both providing other military gets with fuel to prolong fly time and can also be used as cargo aircrafts.<\/p>\n

-KIMBERLY B. ESMORES
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CNMI experienced its first \u201cPet a Jet\u201d event hosted by the U.S. Air Force,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-405406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}