Above Salt Lake City ? From one of the most enviable vantage points of the Winter Olympics, Staff Sgt. Rafael Cruz Oyola sees what few ever will.

But Cruz Oyola isn’t watching for skiers twisting and turning down mountains or snowboarders leaping and flipping.

Staff Sgt. Rafael Cruz Oyola guides a fuel boom from a KC-135 Stratotanker plane to a waiting F-16 fighter over the mountains near Salt Lake City. Oyola was part of a three-member crew from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita that provided support Friday for the fighter planes guarding restricted air space over the Olympic areas.

At 27,000 feet above Salt Lake City, he’s busy conducting an aerial ballet between his KC-135 Stratotanker plane and F-16 fighter jets guarding the restricted airspace above the Olympic areas.

“I have a little time to enjoy the view, but when the work comes, it’s focus up-close time,” said Cruz Oyola, 23, of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. “Everything is 100 percent all the time. Otherwise bad things happen.”

He’s part of the three-member KC-135 crew from the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan.

As the boom operator, it’s his job to link the F-16s to the long metal tube lowered below the rear of the KC-135 for the refueling.

“It’s like a big old video game,” Cruz Oyola said of the hand-eye coordination needed to get the boom to the F-16.

Precision work

In the plane’s tail section, he was on his stomach, peering through a small window as an F-16 closed to about 50 feet, close enough to make out the shoulder patch on the pilot’s flight suit.

With a pair of joysticks, he maneuvers the boom and talks to the F-16 pilot as the plane with missiles beneath its wings inches closer and closer.

“Sir, I have 10 feet … 5 feet. Contact,” Cruz Oyola said in measured tones as the two planes inched closer together at 450 miles per hour.

“Are you empty?” he asked.

Capt. Dan Hill, 27, of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing from Wichita, is proud of his role in defending

“Just looking for a top-off,” came the reply as the sun danced off the F-16 canopy.

As he talked to the pilot, Cruz Oyola brought the boom toward an 18-inch opening behind the canopy where it’s inserted, then locked in place for the refueling.

Within a few minutes, the F-16 moved away to make room for the next one and the process began anew.

Cruz Oyola said the biggest challenge is knowing what’s going on around him at all times during refueling.

“Otherwise, you can get yourself in trouble,” he said.

Guarding against terror

Since Sept. 11, the 22nd Wing has been busy providing refueling services worldwide, although for security reasons the Air Force won’t talk specifics.

On Friday, reporters and photographers accompanied the crew as the plane circled over Salt Lake City for about four hours, twice refueling a pair of F-16s so they could stay aloft longer to patrol the restricted airspace.

The restricted airspace covers a radius of 45 miles around the Salt Lake International Airport. The F-16s from the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base in Ogden, Utah, are enforcing the flight restrictions.

All planes except commercial airliners must fly into four gateway airports within a few hours of the city for inspection before they can enter the restricted airspace.

It isn’t lost on the tanker crew that they are doing their part to guard against terrorist attacks.

Like the rest of the crew, pride leaps from the lips of the pilot, Capt. Dan Hill, 27, of Hudson, Ohio.

“It great to be able to make sure they are safe,” Hill said of those below. “It’s nice to be able to defend the homeland.”

His co-pilot, Lt. Dean Peterson, 25, of Independence, Iowa, nodded in agreement.

“We’ve got not only the United States, but countries from around the world depending on our security,” Peterson said.

‘Small office, great view’

During the time over the city, the plane flew in a large oval, dubbed the “race track pattern.” It gives Hill and Peterson time to look at the countryside below.

“It’s a small office with a great view,” Hill said with a smile.

A great view indeed.

Much of the ground is snow-covered and the Great Salt Lake looked gray and cold. Even at 27,000 feet, towering mountains seemed almost able to touch the plane, the trees reaching up like tiny outstretched fingers.

Off to his left, Hill pointed to a ski slope. At this altitude, the ski courses looked like dark pieces of thin twisted ribbons.

“Wish I was there,” Hill, an avid skier, said softly.

A few minutes later, Hill spotted what he thought was the Olympic Stadium, which from his view resembled a square with a white field in the middle.

Circling over downtown, the Mormon Temple stood out, its majestic spires rising above the snow-covered roof. City avenues appeared as dark lines on a white blanket and neighborhood streets formed waffle-like patterns.

The flight began in the predawn hours Friday at McConnell . By the time the plane was over the Rocky Mountains, the sun was rising.

The eastern side of the snow-covered mountains slowly began to glisten in the morning light, at times giving off a golden glow. The deep morning shadows carved definition into the landscape below.

The beginning of another day.