Originally Posted by
Excargodog
I was on an ANG KC-135 once that was refueling and got underrun by a fast mover. Their breakaway maneuver was power and climb. I can almost picture a KC-135 receiver aircraft hearing a breakaway call and just doing the same thing reflexively from habit intrusion. Especially since even the KC-135 guys who do have the capability to be refueled in flight have generally done tons more of refueling other aircraft than getting refueled themselves. Couple that with a lot of time zone changes and the sort of workload and fatigue you get in wartime and I could see that happening.
So sad.
There is no part of the breakaway maneuver that calls for the tanker to climb. They accelerate, and the receiver goes to idle, and descends to the bottom of the block. So there should be no muscle memory to pull up.