Two military siblings had a memorable family reunion at 25,000 feet when an Air Force tanker pilot refueled her brother’s Navy EA-18G Growler attack jet.
During a mission earlier this year, Capt. Elizabeth “Sully” Brakefield, who flies KC-46A Pegasus tankers for the 344th Air Refueling Squadron at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, refueled a Navy EA-18G Growler formation – one of which included her brother, Navy Lt. Lawson Brakefield.
Lawson Brakefield is a flight officer assigned to the Vikings of Electronic Attack Squadron 129 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Washington. Growlers are a hybrid attack aircraft, based on the Navy’s high-performance FA-18 Super Hornet fighter jet but loaded with electronic warfare systems designed to jam and disrupt radar and communications.
The brother-sister pair had concocted their meet-up plan months earlier, Lawson Brakefield told the Navy in a release, each coordinating flights from their own units.
Air Force tankers are not generally set up to refuel Navy fighters. When refueling other Air Force planes, the service’s tankers use their extended boom to reach a fuel port that all Air Force planes have. The system can deliver close to 1,200 gallons of gas per minute.
Navy planes are designed to work with much smaller tankers that land and launch from aircraft carriers, and therefore do not have the large refueling booms. Instead, Navy tankers trail a fuel hose behind the plane capped by a badminton-style basket, or drogue. The Navy pilots maneuver their probe into the drogue to start refueling. The system delivers about 300 gallons per minute.
Still, KC-46s and other Air Force tankers can refuel Navy planes with a short hose and drogue on the end of its probe.
On the morning of the mission, an impending storm clouded the skies and threatened to delay the Air Force tanker’s takeoff.
“That morning was kind of stressful because we didn’t know if our plane was going to work,” Elizabeth Brakefield said. “Then the weather became an issue, so we didn’t know if we would be able to take off on time.”
Rain ended up delaying the aircraft take off by about 15 minutes but after the weather cleared, they were on their way. Refueling a Growler, or any aircraft for that matter, can be a tricky job and oftentimes the refuelers’ probes miss the drogue or entry point where the fuel is transferred.
At first, Elizabeth Brakefield didn’t recognize her brother’s voice on the radio since most people sound the same muffled and indistinct. Then he asked her about an injury from a month earlier and she knew it was Lawson.
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“I thought about everything that led up to this moment,” Lawson Brakefield said. “Flying side by side felt surreal and filled me with immense pride. It’s a memory I’ll cherish for the rest of my life.”
The Brakefield siblings grew up in Dothan, Alabama, and followed in the footsteps of their father, a former soldier, to join the military.
“Our dad always instilled the whole service-before-self motive,” Elizabeth Brakefield said. “He’s always encouraged us to join.”
Elizabeth Brakefield told the Navy that her inspiration also came from her brother who joined first after attending the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. She went to his induction day in 2016 and her brother did the same for her four years later at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Elizabeth Brakefield finished pilot training in 2022 and moved to McConnell where she’s been flying the KC-46 Pegasus for the last year and a half.
“I was kind of just following him in his footsteps,” Elizabeth Brakefield said.
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