A Hooah for National Guard Firefighting

This has turned out to be a bad spring for forest and range fires here in the West, with 50 mile-an-hour winds driving blazes across drought parched land in Texas and Mexico.

The U.S. Northern Command said four C-130s and air crews, from the Wyoming, North Carolina, and California Air National Guard are deployed to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, to assist the National Interagency Fire Center in controlling fires in south Texas.

Another two C-130s, from the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., are deployed to Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, at the request of the Mexican government to help control the wildfires in the Mexican state of Coahuila

The aircraft are equipped with the Forest Service Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems, which can drop 3,000 gallons of retardant on a fire in five seconds.

Well done.

NEXT STORY: Health IT and the Forbidden Fruit