SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Aircraft of the 302nd Air Expeditionary Group conducted their 29th day of aerial firefighting support missions July 21 in a coordinated effort to control wildfires in California.
Sunday, the 302nd AEG military aviation assets performed a total of 17 air drops delivering 47,600 gallons of fire retardant. For the current fire fighting operations, the 302nd AEG aerial assets have conducted nearly 1,000 drops, numbering more than 1,400,000 gallons of fire retardant and water.
C-130 firefighting sorties covered the following fires: 13 air drops to the Basin fire within the Los Padres National Forest located five miles southeast of Big Sur, delivering approximately 36,400 gallons of fire retardant and two air drops on the Lime complex located with in the Shasta Trinity National Forest, delivering approximately 5,000 gallons of fire retardant.
Additionally, two air drops were performed on the Soda Complex Fire located in the Mendocino National Forest15 miles northwest of Upper Lake, Calif., delivering approximately 5,000 gallons of fire retardant.
Over the weekend, Four MAFFS C-130’s redeployed to their home stations – a C-130 from the North Carolina Air National Guard 145th Airlift Wing returned to Charlotte, N.C., and a C-with the 302nd Airlift Wing returned to Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. Two C-103s from the Wyoming Air National Guard 153rd Airlift Wing from Cheyenne, Wyo. returned to Cheyenne Municipal Air port.
The 302nd AEG is currently made up of four Air Force Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System-equipped C-130 aircraft located at McClellan Airfield, Calif.
The 302nd AEG C-130 aircraft units include two Air National Guard units – the 145th Airlift Wing from Charlotte, N.C., the 146th Airlift Wing from Channel Islands, Calif., and one Air Force Reserve unit -- the 302nd Airlift Wing from Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.
The 302nd AEG provides unique capabilities and is part of a unified military support effort of U.S. Northern Command to provide assistance to the U.S. Forest Service, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and the National Interagency Fire Center.
USNORTHCOM continues to closely monitor the California wildfires to anticipate additional requests for Department of Defense assistance to local, federal, and state civil authorities and will launch as many missions as officials require to battle the wildfires.