Sun, May 02, 2010
Preparing For Fire Season That's To Be "Hotter And Dryer" In
The Northwest
Airmen from the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve have
been training with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, or
MAFFS, at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center this
week.
MAFFS units are composed of National Guard and Reserve C-130
aircraft that drop fire retardant ahead of an encroaching fire to
assist ground fire crews. "While it is diminishing, the effects of
El Niño are still being felt throughout our country," said
Neal Hitchcock, deputy assistant director of operations for the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. "The northwest
region of our nation is projected to be hotter and dryer than
normal this year, increasing the opportunities and intensity for
wildfires in that region," Hitchcock said.
Aircrews received classroom training April 26 to set the
foundation for the week of airborne exercises that revitalize the
abilities of veteran crewmembers and certify crewmembers who are
new to the MAFFS mission, Guard officials said. Military flight
crews will rotate flying time, performing maneuvers to prepare them
for challenges such as low-level flying through gorges and over
mountainsides and the intense pace of repeated drops and refills of
fire retardant in rapid succession. Ground crews will learn about
equipment operation and will be introduced to the extreme pace of
constantly receiving, servicing, loading and launching the
aircraft.
"I am proud of the MAFFS mission and our role in protecting the
communities and lands throughout this nation," said Air Force Tech.
Sgt. Robert Onesios, an aircraft electro-environmental maintenance
technician with the North Carolina Air National Guard's 145th
Airlift Wing. Units assigned and equipped to execute the MAFFS
missions are the 145th Airlift Wing from Charlotte, NC, the 146th
Airlift Wing from Channel Islands, CA, and the 153rd Airlift Wing
from Cheyenne, WY - all Air National Guard units -- and the Air
Force Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing out of Colorado Springs, CO.
MAFFS is a partnership between federal land management agencies
and the military to provide supplemental air tankers to assist in
fire-suppression efforts nationwide.
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