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A Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System C-130 from the Air Force Reserve Command's 302nd Airlift Wing makes a retardant drop on the Springs fire near Banks, Idaho. On Aug. 9, MAFFS 5, assigned to the 302nd at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., made the 500th retardant drop for this year's MAFFS operations. A MAFFS-equipped C-130 assigned to the wing also dropped the one millionth gallon of retardant since MAFFS began flying aerial firefighting missions in support of the U.S. Forest Service on June 25. (Master Sgt. Dave Buttner)
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MAFFS 2012: Busy year for 302nd includes battling fires in own ‘backyard’
Posted 9/27/2012 Updated 9/27/2012
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by Ann Skarban
302nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs
9/27/2012 - Citizen Airman/Oct. 2012 -- 2012 will go down as one of the busiest in history for members of the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., involved in the aerial firefighting mission. In addition to the heavy work load, the Reservists will remember 2012 as a year they were called on to battle raging wildfires in their own backyard.
Just after noon on June 23, residents of Colorado Springs couldn't help but notice a massive plume of smoke billowing from the foothills of the mountains on the city's west side. A wildland fire had started and appeared to be growing rapidly.
As local television and radio stations interrupted their scheduled programming to alert the public of the looming danger, Reservists who support the wing's modular airborne fire fighting, or MAFFS, mission were also keeping a close eye on the smoke plume as it continued to grow higher and spread farther. Many of them knew this fire, located just miles away from Peterson AFB, could be the start of the 2012 MAFFS season.
"I was doing yard work and just happened to look up and saw the smoke plume. I knew immediately it was a big fire because I've seen so many in other parts of the country," said Senior Master Sgt. Dave Carey, a 22-year MAFFS-qualified C-130 flight engineer.
As he watched the plume grow, Carey said he had a funny feeling about it.
"We have all heard, it's not a matter of if but when, and this is the when," he said, referring to a wildland fire threatening the Colorado Springs area. "You just knew it would be serious because of the rate at which it grew. It went from a tiny little plume to something huge in hours. My family and I were waiting for the phone to ring (for the 302nd MAFFS capability to be activated)."
That evening, as the fire continued to grow and the smell of smoke permeated throughout Colorado Springs, Lt. Col. Luke Thompson, chief of aerial firefighting for the 302nd AW and a 16-year MAFFS-qualified C-130 aircraft commander, received the official request for the wing's assistance from the U.S. Forest Service. Together with the Wyoming Air National Guard's 153rd Airlift Wing, they would be providing aerial firefighting support for the Forest Service's Rocky Mountain area.
Less than 24 hours after the start of the fire, now named the Waldo Canyon fire, the wing's aerial porters were alerted. During the early morning hours of June 24, in 90-plus degree heat, they began loading the large Forest Service MAFFS II tank systems into the cargo bay of the two MAFFS-designated 302nd C-130s within view of the fire's advancing smoke and flames. The aircrews who earlier were on standby for MAFFS support were now on full alert.
"The response of everyone in the wing was outstanding," Thompson said. "When we were initially activated, we had more volunteers than we needed. Maintenance and aerial port came out on a non-flying weekend to load systems and get the planes ready. They (the MAFFS-equipped C-130s and crews) were ready by noon, just hours after getting the official request for assistance from the U.S. Forest Service."
On June 25 two of the Reserve wing's MAFFS-equipped C-130s, along with one from the 153rd AW, received their first launch orders for 2012 and began to fly fire suppression missions on what would become the costliest wildland fire in Colorado's history. This was also the closest fire in the history of MAFFS to the Reservists' homes, and those of their families and friends, as well as Peterson AFB itself.
"Having this in town gave us a different sense of urgency about it," Carey said. "It was our backyard."
The aircraft and crews dropped more than 8,000 gallons of retardant on the first day of MAFFS missions.
The second day of aerial firefighting missions required support from all four MAFFS aircraft: two from the 302nd AW and two from the 153rd AW. The four C-130s, each with their large orange MAFFS designation numbers painted on the side of the fuselage and tail, began a pattern of taking off from the Peterson AFB flight line, dropping retardant on the fire and returning to refill their tanks, similar to the rotation of a NASCAR pit operation. C-130s could be seen delivering the bright orange retardant along the edges of the nearby fire and returning to Peterson to reload the MAFFS system with retardant throughout the day.
"I had minimal time to finish the after-take off checklist and start the drop checklist," said Carey, who flew 15 missions on the Waldo Canyon fire. "It was so compressed. It was the most compressed ever, due to the short distance from the airfield to the fire. I was task saturated to get the airplane configured to drop. It was about three minutes from liftoff to the fire. Usually it takes 20 minutes, which is plenty of time."
Just as the C-130s were hitting their stride and had delivered more than 50,000 gallons of retardant, the fire, later characterized as "a firestorm of epic proportions" by Rich Brown, chief of the Colorado Springs Fire Department, began to accelerate, driven by 65 mph winds. The MAFFS C-130s were placed on operational hold due to high winds and severely decreased visibility.
"I'll never forget that feeling of helplessness as we stood on the flight line and saw the excessive winds blowing the fire into the city," Carey said. "There was a blanket of smoke over the whole city. You knew it was coming into town, you just didn't know how far it would go. I called Heidi (Carey's wife) and asked her to prepare our family for evacuation -- when I saw my neighborhood disappear in smoke, I didn't want to take any chances."
Unlike other fires that the Reserve wing has responded to, this one was the first in the unit's own backyard. The wing quickly established an Emergency Evacuation Control Center for the Waldo Canyon fire. Through accountability recalls, senior leaders learned 80 Reservists assigned to the 302nd AW were directly affected by the fire, and some were in immediate evacuation areas. One Reservist's home was lost in the firestorm.
"The members of the 302nd worked quickly to meet every new challenge presented by the fire," said Col. Jay Pittman, wing commander. "Our force support squadron worked to establish an evacuation control center to help those who were suddenly in need. The fire had affected many of our members personally. Everyone in the wing pulled together and made sure our Airmen and their families were safe and cared for."
The next day, after the firestorm's wrath, the violent winds calmed and the smoke cleared somewhat, allowing the Guard and Reserve MAFFS aircraft and crews to continue their suppression missions. They continued their work through June 29, making a total of 50 drops and delivering 133,554 gallons of retardant on the Waldo Canyon fire.
Beginning June 30, with the Waldo Canyon fire 25 percent contained, the Forest Service turned its attention to wildland fires in Wyoming and South Dakota. With the increase in fire activity in the region, the Forest Service determined four additional MAFFS aircraft were needed. This would be the first time since the California fires of 2008 that all eight MAFFS aircraft were activated at the same time. All eight were based at Peterson.
MAFFS crew members had a good feeling about their contributions to the fire in their hometown and were ready to continue helping others.
"It was very gratifying," Carey said. "Everyone wants to do something for their community, and a lot of people did a lot of things. I felt like MAFFS was my way to doing something. I love this community; I am a native here."
On July 1, all eight MAFFS aircraft were flying in support of the Arapaho and Oil Creek fires in Wyoming and the White Draw fire in South Dakota.
"We were going to Billings for slurry and gas and then flying to the White Draw fire in South Dakota," Carey said. "We were enroute to South Dakota when we didn't hear seven (MAFFS 7) on the radios anymore."
MAFFS 7 was an aircraft assigned to the 145th AW from the North Carolina Air National Guard.
At about 7 p.m. local time, MAFFS operations were abruptly halted. All aircraft were parked, and operations were placed on hold. It was then that the crews learned MAFFS 7 had crashed near Edgemont, S.D., while supporting the White Draw fire. The news devastated the entire MAFFS community.
"You could see it in everyone's faces; it's a tight-knit group -- small, relative to the Air Force," Carey said.
Four Guardsmen were killed and two severely injured in the crash.
This was the first fatal accident in the 40-year history of the MAFFS program. As a result, MAFFS would be on operational hold for the next day to allow crews to re-set.
"Having this happen to a MAFFS crew just a month after losing a commercial tanker crew really knocked the wind out of us," Thompson said. "We sat down for a day, checked what we could, asked people if they would be willing to go back out again (and they all were), and we then went back at it the next day."
On July 3, after MAFFS leadership ensured aircraft and aircrews were ready to resume flying, the mission continued with C-130s operating out of both Peterson AFB and Wyoming. As fires in the central United States began to reach greater containment levels, the Forest Service relocated MAFFS operations to Boise Air Terminal in Boise, Idaho.
Describing the move to the fires in Idaho, Carey said, "This was more toward normal for us, but we still worked with a sense of urgency for the people of Sun Valley and Featherville, where the entire village was threatened. We worked around Boise, just north, east and south."
Reflecting on the unprecedented events of this year's MAFFS season, Thompson said, "We've suffered loss on our (MAFFS) side, and people have lost homes and property. The thing that strikes me most this season is what we don't usually hear in the news. Dozens if not hundreds of fires didn't make the news because we (MAFFS), along with other air and ground firefighters, were able to help contain them while they were small, so they never became a catastrophe. That's the goal.
"And we were able to do it more efficiently this year by reloading at more civilian tanker bases because the new MAFFS system is able to operate nearly anywhere without a specific MAFFS support base. It makes us quicker to get to the fire, allows us to make more drops on a given fire in less time and makes us much more agile so we can be closer to where they need us."
On Sept. 14, the Forest Service deactivated the MAFFS-equipped military C-130s due to favorable fire conditions. However, the aircraft can still be reativated well into the fall.
At the time of the deactivation, the MAFFS crews had performed 1,011 drops, releasing a total of almost 2.5 million gallons of retardant. The total makes this season the second busiest in MAFFS history in terms of gallons dropped, surpassed only by the 1994 season when C-130s dropped about 5 million gallons of retardant.
"This has been one of our busiest MAFFS seasons in recent years," Thompson said. "We have extremely committed aircrews, aircraft maintainers and support personnel. We will continue our support of wildland firefighting efforts as long as the Forest Service needs us." |
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