U.S. Air Force Maj. Stephen Silva, a KC-10 Extender

U.S. Air Force Maj. Stephen Silva, a KC-10 Extender pilot with the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron, deployed from the 70th Air Refueling Squadron out of Travis Air Force Base,Calif., does a pre-landing check during an air refueling mission in Southwest Asia, Feb. 25, 2012. The 908th EARS provides critical aerial refueling to aircraft in the area of responsibility, delivering more than one million gallons of fuel to the fight every day. In 2011, the 908th EARS offloaded more than 390 million pounds of fuel to more than 28,000 airplanes, flew more than 36,700 hours in almost 4,600 missions and the average sortie length for a KC-10 mission in Southwest Asia was about eight hours.