Peterson wing helps fight California wildfires Over 1 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped

July 16, 2008 - 11:52PM

BY RINA PALTA

THE GAZETTE

Amy Horton had one thing left to do before she boarded the C-130 Hercules transport plane at McClellan Airfield in Sacramento, over a thousand miles from home base.

"Did you get one of these yet, Patterson?" she asked, and when the young man in fatigues said he hadn't, she placed a silver coin in his hand.

"It's a tradition, since Vietnam," she explained. Back then, soldiers would carry lucky bullets, she said, then they started melting them down and engraving symbols. Everyone in a unit would carry one, and if someone called "coin check," whoever didn't have one on them would have to pick up the drink tab. But, she said, the item symbolizes camaraderie more than anything. The coin she was distributing to her colleagues on the maintenance crew had an insignia including a snowcapped peak, a commemoration for their time spent helping fight California's forest fires.

"Alright! I gotta go!" she said, running toward the tarmac. "If you go too long without seeing me, call me."

Horton, along with 17 of her compatriots in the Air Force Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing returned to their home at Peterson Air Force Base on Tuesday night in a crew-swap operation that replaced them with an Air National Guard team from Cheyenne. In what's being called one of the worst California wildfire seasons in decades, somewhere between 35 and 50 of the Colorado Springs unit have been stationed at McClellan at any give time since their commander, Col. James Muscatell Jr., received the call for help at 3 a.m. on June 22 and sent out the first C-130 on June 25. Within three days, he'd sent out three of the planes, which are fitted with a Modular Airborne FireFighting System that can drop 3,000 gallons of red, goopy fire retardant in as little as five seconds through tubes sticking out the back of the aircraft.

This year, the planes from Colorado and elsewhere have dropped more than 1 million gallons so far, over five times last year's total. California houses its own C-130s, but a newer model of the plane which they haven't yet been able to make compatible with MAFFS, Muscatell said.

Thomas Porter, staff chief of resource management at California's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said the men and women of the 302nd have made a vital contribution, both actual and psychological.

"In times like this, you're out on the line as a firefighter and you know you need an aircraft, but none is coming," Porter said. "They you see something coming over the ridge and it's very comforting."

Flying, at times, at an altitude of 150 feet, Air Force Reserve pilots follow a lead plane around the smoky perimeter of a wildfire, dropping the mixture, which consists mainly of water, dye and fertilizer. Later, firefighters can enter the now-contained blaze and more effectively combat it.

Tech. Sgt. Lamont Wood said the experience is "hot, it's very intense." A Colorado Springs native studying professional aeronautics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Wood said he takes every chance he can to join his Peterson-based unit.

"I just love planes," he said, which means that he even enjoys the infamous "suicide seat" on the C-130s. Squatting between the two pipes that discharge fire retardant, a load master like Wood can get "the best view in the house," he said. It also means that when the plane discharges its 28,000-pound load and the low-flying aircraft's nose dips from the weight change, there's nothing between the man or woman and the ground.

"Some people think it's terrifying, " Wood said. "I love it."

His duties have also taken him on three deployments to Qatar, where he flew on daily missions to Iraq, where the C-130, which can "land anywhere" often transports soldiers and supplies as an alternative to risky ground convoys.

"Both types of missions are rewarding," he said of serving overseas and at home. But there's something special about doing service in one's own country, he said.

"You hear about the military overseas, but most people don't see that the military here has a presence, that we do things that affect Americans at home" Wood said.

"But when people see that mighty Hercules flying low and fast across a ridge, that makes them sit up."

On the way home, with many donned in "Cal Fire" caps and shirts, members of Peterson's 302nd Airlift Wing listened to music, joked with each other and slept in the netted seats of their famed C-130.

While Wood said he was glad to be going home to Colorado Springs and "to sleep in my own bed," he may very well be back in Sacramento before long. Though only 96 of California's 2,010 peak fires remain uncontained, the 302nd expects to continue operations well into the summer at McClellan, and possibly into the fall, when Southern California's wildfire season begins to rage.