California @ MindSay

By Air Force Capt. Alyson Teeter

Special to American Forces Press Service

 

July 18, 2008 - Air National Guardsmen from 129th Rescue Wing launched a search-and rescue-mission from here the afternoon of July 16 to save a fisherman experiencing a medical emergency aboard a Canadian fishing boat off the coast of California. Responding to a call from the Coast Guard District 11 Alameda, an MC-130P Combat Shadow tanker met the 85-foot Ocean Marauder fishing boat about 500 miles from Eureka, Calif.

 

During this initial phase of the rescue operation, four specially trained pararescuemen parachuted from the MC-130P to provide emergency medical treatment to stabilize the patient. The four pararescuemen remained with the patient overnight, while the MC-130P returned to Moffett.

 

At 10 a.m. yesterday, the 129th launched the second phase of the rescue operation. Two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and two MC-130P tankers departed here to pick up the patient and pararescuemen from the Ocean Marauder. After locating the fishing boat, the HH-60Gs hovered over the vessel to allow the pararescuemen and patient to be hoisted safely into the helicopters.

 

The two HH-60G helicopters and crews were recalled yesterday from firefighting operations in Chico and Ukiah. The 129th maintainers worked diligently to convert the aircraft from firefighting to rescue-ready.

 

While also being on search-and-rescue alert, helicopter crews performed water-bucket suppression operations in Northern California, dropping more than 150,000 gallons of water since July 3. The 129th Rescue Wing is the only rescue unit in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard qualified to fight fires.

 

"The 129th is the 'go-to' unit due to its specialized capabilities in a wide range of environments, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, combat, and civilian search and rescue," said Air Force Lt. Col. Steve Butow, 129th Operations Group deputy commander. "Seamlessly transitioning from firefighting duty yesterday to the search-and-rescue mission today demonstrates our keen ability to adapt, respond and save lives."

 

The rescue helicopter landed at the Regional Medical Center of San Jose's heliport at about 5:20 p.m. yesterday. The 129th personnel then transferred the patient to awaiting hospital staff.

 

This rescue brings the total number of people saved by 129th Rescue Wing to 560.

 

The unit's primary mission is to train and be prepared to perform its federal mission of combat search and rescue anywhere in the world. In addition, the unit also works closely with the Coast Guard and various civil agencies on state missions.

 

"The crews of the 129th Rescue Wing have done an outstanding job," said Rear Adm. Craig Bone, commander of 11th Coast Guard District in Alameda.

 

"When our rescue coordination center asked them to fly this mission, the response was immediate and, as usual, effective. Amid an already busy operational tempo supporting wildfire fighting and other operations the 129th mounted a complex rescue operation extending hundreds of miles offshore."

 

(Air Force Capt. Alyson Teeter serves with the California National Guard.)

By Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Hughan

Special to American Forces Press Service

 

July 11, 2008 - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered an additional 2,000 National Guard troops to state active duty today to boost the state's ongoing firefighting efforts and prepare for the threat of additional fires over the next several months. "We already have 400 Guard members on the front lines, and once these new troops are trained and certified, they will be ready to pitch in at a moment's notice throughout the fire season," Schwarzenegger said in a news release issued by his staff.

 

The federal government committed yesterday to send out-of-state firefighters to train these additional California Guard personnel on critical firefighting techniques.

 

This is the first time since 1977 that soldiers have been used to fight fires on the ground in California.

 

"Having their assistance is going to be critical as we go forward into this summer of fire fighting," said Capt. Mark Whaling of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CAL FIRE. "They have the same basic fire training that every new firefighter has, so if any of these fires escape their containment lines, they will be able to control them so we can get the tired crews back to base camps for rest."

 

These additional troops will go through training at McClellan Air Park with the U.S. Forest Service and will be available for duty over the next few weeks.

 

"The soldiers will be doing duties that CAL FIRE regularly does. It's just that the volume of fire this year is so much, with so many fires, ... this is the challenge the Guard will help us meet," Whaling said.

 

CAL FIRE trained the Guard members on fire breaks, brush clearing, proper tool usage and safety. The troops also received basic conditioning that consisted of trail hikes in full gear, multiple times a day in the hot sun, to prepare for what promises to be very difficult work ahead.

 

"It's a great experience so far. There is a definite science and process to firefighting that you don't know about until you've been on a hand crew out here for a while," said Army Sgt. Mark Walch.

 

Walch is a high school teacher in Chico and a soldier with Company A, 297th Support Battalion, who dropped the summer classes he was taking and reported to the Oroville Armory within hours of the mobilization.

 

"The fires in Butte County are threatening my hometown of Paradise, so it's doubly important to me to be here. I'm a small cog in the wheel, but every little thing counts," Walch said.

 

The soldiers will be grouped into 20-person teams and distributed around the state to wherever the fire officials need them and where the soldiers can be used most effectively and safely.

 

"These types of fires are an endurance race, so they will help us stretch our resources so we can move forward and contain the existing and new fires as they pop up," Whaling said.

 

One CAL FIRE official said he believes the Guard is an excellent and recurring source of trained and experienced firefighters to help contain and control fires in the state.

 

"I see this as the future," said CAL FIRE assistant captain Dan Burns. "Once the training is complete, we have a record of every soldier and will be able to recall them and get them to the lines quickly. I see this as only the beginning."

 

The California National Guard, with support from neighboring states, has the following resources allocated to the state's firefighting efforts:

 

-- The California Guard has mobilized more than 1,000 personnel to provide support to the ongoing firefighting effort, including more than 400 personnel assigned to hand crews working alongside other firefighters.

 

-- Twenty-two helicopters are supporting the firefighting effort, including 14 California Guard helicopters and eight helicopters from Utah, Nebraska, Washington, Arizona and Oregon. To date, these rotary-wing aircraft have dropped nearly 3 million gallons of water.

 

-- The California Guard also is providing one C-130J support aircraft for personnel and equipment transport and one RC-26 providing aerial imagery support.

 

-- Eight C-130H cargo aircraft equipped with the modular airborne firefighting system are assisting from other states, including three from the North Carolina Air National Guard, two from the Wyoming Air National Guard and three from the Colorado Air Force Reserve. They are capable of dropping up to 3,000 gallons of water or retardant per mission. To date, they have dropped nearly 1 million gallons of retardant.

 

(Army Staff Sgt. Andrew Hughan serves with the California National Guard. Air Force Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the National Guard Bureau contributed to this report.)

New Cars in California Must Display Global Warming Score
By GreenBiz Staff
Published July 7, 2008
http://www.greenbiz.com/news/2008/07/07/cars-california-global-warming-score

OAKLAND, Calif. -- California is making it mandatory for cars to be labeled with global warming scores, figures that take into account emissions from vehicle use and fuel production.

The law requiring the labels goes into effect at the start of next year for all 2009 model cars, though its expected the labels will be popping up on cars in the coming months.

The labeling law forces cars for sale to display a global warming score, on a scale of one to 10, which is based on how vehicles in the same model year compare to one another. The higher the score, the cleaner a car is. The score takes into account emissions related to production of fuel for each vehicle as well as the direct emissions from vehicles.

The score will be displayed next to the already-required smog score, which also rates cars one to 10 for how many smog-forming emissions they emit. For both scores, an average vehicle will have a score of five.

California is the first state of pass such as law, and a similar law will take effect in New York for 2010 model year vehicles. Global warming scores will be included on the state's DriveClean website.

While this law is intended to help consumers take into account emissions while purchasing cars, a proposed law in the European Union would require E.U. public sector bodies put a price on emissions.

A law endorsed by the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety would make governments put a monetary cost on the emissions of vehicles they plan to purchase, and add that to expense calculations. The law would exclude certain types of vehicles, such as ambulances and fire trucks.

By Air Force Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith

Special to American Forces Press Service

 

June 24, 2008 - Army and Air National Guard members from California and North Carolina are supporting firefighting efforts in Northern California today following a state active-duty call-up by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a request for airborne firefighting assets by the Interagency Fire Center. The governor's office reported yesterday that a "swarm of dry lighting cells over the last 16 hours sparked nearly 400 new fires across the state, spanning from Monterey and Fresno counties to the Oregon-California border."

 

Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency June 22 for Monterey and Trinity counties. The governor made similar declarations for Butte and Santa Cruz counties June 11 and 12. At least 30 Guard members were operating in Redding, Napa and Stockton.

 

The Interagency Fire Center reported more than 33,000 wild land fires in the United States this year. More than 1,000 new fires have been reported in California since June 21.

 

Two specially equipped C-130 Hercules aircraft, aircrews and support assets from the North Carolina Air Guard's 145th Airlift Wing arrived in Chico, Calif., yesterday, adding to 10 other Army and Air National Guard aircraft and aircrews performing firefighting missions in the state.

 

Four Air Guard C-130s carry special mobile airborne firefighting systems that can drop 3,000 gallons of an orange-colored water and fire-retardant mixture. In addition, four Army National Guard UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and one CH-47 Chinook helicopter equipped with helibuckets also are suppressing wildfires from a staging area at the Stockton Flight Facility.

 

Two Army Guard OH-58 Kiowa observation helicopters from Los Alamitos are performing fire-spotting missions out of Mather Air Field, and one RC-26 Metroliner is performing aerial reconnaissance missions. Officials reported additional requests for at least eight Army Guard aircraft from Nevada, Washington and Oregon.

 

(Air Force Master Sgt. Mike R. Smith serves with the National Guard Bureau.)