Aerial firefighters take part in bloggers roundtable

Published April 27, 2011
By Staff Reports
302nd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- On April 27 Col. Jay Pittman, commander of the Air Force Reserve Command's 302nd Airlift Wing and deployed commander of the 302nd Air Expeditionary Group, participated in a Department of Defense Blogger's Roundtable to discuss the ongoing Modular Airborne Firefighting System efforts supporting the fight against the Texas wildland fires. Accompanying Colonel Pittman on the roundtable panel were and Lt. Col. David Condit, deployed 302nd AEG deputy commander and Ms. Jennifer Jones, public affairs officer for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, National Interagency Fire Center.

Via a telephone conference call, in a roundtable discussion format, bloggers from across the country, asked questions of the subject matter experts to include, management of air frames and resources to cover both fire fighting missions and overseas contingency operations to how MAFFS aircrews coordinate with local fire fighting agencies on the ground and finally, how air space is managed during aerial firefighting operations. The AEG leadership answered questions and shared information with the bloggers from their deployed location at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

U.S. Northern Command, through its Air Force Component Command, Air Forces Northern, deployed the 302nd AEG to support the National Interagency Fire Center. The Department of Defense is flying MAFFS missions in Texas at the request of NIFC. The 302nd AEG currently has four MAFFS C-130s deployed to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.

The MAFFS units are owned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, one of several federal and state government agencies and organizations with roles and responsibilities in wildland fire suppression that make up the National Interagency Fire Center.

From April 17 through April 26, C-130s assigned to the 302nd AEG have flown 44 missions dropping 132,000 gallons of fire retardant in an attempt to contain the Texas wildfires.

In the round table's closing remarks Colonel Pittman said, "We are very proud of our mission and are about to begin our annual [MAFFS] training. We stand ready to support additional fires."

The transcript from the April 27 MAFFS DoDLive bloggers roundtable can be found by logging onto http://www.dodlive.mil/index.php/category/bloggers-roundtable.