Posted on 10/23/2007 7:56:35 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
ARLINGTON, Va. — The U.S. military on Tuesday ramped up its role in what in will be a significant federal response to the southern California fires.
“Whatever it takes to deal with this fire and the aftermath, we’re prepared to stand with the citizens of California and the governor to provide that,” Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, told Pentagon reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Military officials are speaking to California officials “about every four hours,” Blum said. “We don’t try to badger them to death, but we let them know that if we have it, if it’s in our inventory, it’s available to them.”
About 9:30 pm Monday, the Pentagon received a request from the National Interagency Fire Center, which is coordinating the federal response to the fire, for six C-130 transports equipped with a system called the Modular Air Firefighting System (MAFFS).
The units are from the 153rd Airlift Wing, Wyoming National Guard; the 145th Airlift Wing, North Carolina National Guard; and the U.S. Air Force Reserve's 302nd Airlift Wing based at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Springs, Colo.
The first aircraft, from Colorado, were scheduled to touch down at Naval Air Station Point Magu, Calif., Tuesday afternoon, according to Paul McHale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense. The other units will follow.
But the inferno continued to be boosted by high winds Tuesday afternoon, preventing the firefighters from using the fixed-wing aircraft to attack the flames from the air.
“Just like the enemy doesn’t follow our plan, the fire doesn’t either,” Blum said
The Navy was also providing two MH-60 aircraft to fight the fires, while the California National Guard is providing one CH-47 and five UH-60 helicopters in support of the effort, McHale said.
The Marine Corps has four more helicopters on standby at Marine Air Station Miramar, and another at Camp Pendleton.
Inside the state, the California National Guard is responding 1,100 Army National Guard and 400 Air National Guard, Blum said.
Meanwhile, the question remains whether active-duty troops will be called on to respond in number to the widening fires.
Monday afternoon California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called the White House to request federal assistance.
In turn, President Bush declared a federal emergency for seven counties. That declaration allows the federal government to begin marshalling resources to respond to the crisis, including military personnel.
Among those military assets the federal emergency declaration makes possible to utilize is an active-duty assets is a regiment-sized task force of some 550 Marines from Camp Pendleton, McHale said.
The commitment of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have not impacted the ability of the Pentagon to supply needed personnel or supplies to the fire-fighting effort, Paul McHale, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense, told reporters at the press conference.
“I can tell you unequivocally….the ongoing warfare activities in [U.S. Central Command] have had no negative effect at all,” McHale said.
In fact, Blum added, the 3,000 soldiers from California who are deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan were “carefully selected… to not take capabilities away from the state of California during firefighting season.”
The Pentagon began coordinating its response to the fire Monday, McHale said.
These Marines prepare to support wildfire response efforts each year, according to base spokesman Marine Lt. Col. Chris Hughes.
This "ready-made, large force of operational personnel" could be on fire duty for up to 30 days, and be used tasks like monitoring controlled areas so they don't re-ignite, rather than being placed "on the hot lines," Hughes said.
"We're not fire fighters," Hughes said. "We're good citizens - we do windows - but we are a support element. We're not trained, skilled firefighters."
In terms of Defense Department involvement, the situation in California is “a more severe challenge” than the worst fires on record in the state to date, the wildfires that torched Southern California during the latter half of October, 2003, devastating an area larger than Rhode Island and claiming 22 lives, McHale said.
He said the reason is that this fire “presents a greater likelihood that a large number of DoD personnel would be actively employed in the firefighting.”
“This is a more substantial commitment,” than the 2003 fires, McHale said. “And it’s not over. We are prepared for an even greater level of DoD commitment, if that proves to be necessary.”
Of the two fatalities caused by the fire as of Tuesday, one was a DoD civilian employee, McHale said.
COOLLLL rack itttt
Hey Boxer, we’re here.
We do some amazing stuff. Stop trying to say we are all in Iraq and you have no help.
That has been done before.
.
MEL’s -PASSION- sparked by -WE WERE SOLDIERS-
http://www.Freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1085111/posts
.
Thanks you.
Thank you.
Unless they plan on rebuilding some homes, they ought to send them to the border.
LOL. Wasn’t it last summer the Kansas libs claimed the same thing after some nasty tornadoes hit? I remember a Guardsman called in to Rush’s show to let everybody know there were a couple thousand right there in the state....ready to answer the call..... they just didn’t get called.
Even a disaster right here at home is an excuse for liberals to whine, and they’d rather whine than call on our wonderful (and available) guard troops to FIX IT!
Four of those seven counties are staunch Republican strongholds: San Diego, Riverside, San Bernadino, and Orange. Most of the people in San Diego county know that their bread depends on the military thereabouts.
Two of those seven, Ventura and Santa Barbara, have been 49%/51% sometimes for/sometimes against Republicans. Maybe enough Republican federal military assistance will put them solidly in the Republican camp. And maybe the other Republican counties in California can put the state as a whole again back on the Republican side of the electoral ledger.
... in spite of Los Angeles county being lost to the dark side. Then again, a fair amount of LA county could see the light -- those portions east, north and west of LA city.
No progress yet? Pull out! Get our troops out of California now!!!
About a month ago I read somewhere on the Internet (maybe in here!) of a threat by Al-Qaeda to set these type of fires in the Western US. Now, it seems that there were MULTIPLE starting points for these blazes. Could Al-Qaeda be behind it, right here in the USA, trying to achieve by terror what they have failed to accomplish on the battlefield? More asymmetric warfare?
BTTT
Well, I have read one was arson, two were started by downed powerlines. I have not read what was behing the rest.
usa TODAY had that article in their on line paper today...Also we have Duncan Hunter to thank for getting these military air craft to the san diego region...my congress person.. Bob Filner has been silent.. a lot of this is his district... he is trying to figure out how to blame George Bush..and adjust democrat comments about all the national guards being deployed...
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