Wildfire Response

Latest News

National Guard Members Continue LA Wildfire Response
January 21, 2025 — LOS ANGELES – U.S. Army Sgt. Ricardo Hernandez watched from a cross street as sporadic traffic... MORE

U.S. Army Sgt. Bryce Carter, an infantryman with C Company, 1st Battalion, 160th Infantry Regiment, California Army National Guard, sharpens the blade of a hoe to clear brush and other debris as part of remediation efforts along the Mulholland Trail near Tarzana, California, in the aftermath of the Palisades Fire, Jan. 18, 2025. Carter and other members of his unit were assisting CALFIRE in mop-up efforts, which included clearing brush and backfilling firebreaks and other areas to prevent mudslides and reduce the impact of firefighting efforts.

California Guardsman Helps Battle Wildfires in His Community
January 16, 2025 — CHANNEL ISLANDS AIR NATIONAL GUARD STATION, Calif. - Amid the wildfire crisis in California, an Air... MORE

Master Sgt. Alan Franklin, a commander's support Airman with the 146th Airlift Wing, speaks to 1st Lt. Aiden Flores about the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System mission on the flightline at Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, Port Hueneme, California, Jan. 13, 2025. MAFFS aircraft from the Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing, Cheyenne, Wyoming, the 152nd Airlift Wing, Reno, Nevada, the 146th Airlift Wing, Port Hueneme, California, and Air Force Reserve Command’s 302 AW, Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado, are working together to combat fires in the Los Angeles area.

National Guard Bureau Chief Thanks Firefighting Guardsmen
January 14, 2025 — CHANNEL ISLANDS AIR NATIONAL GUARD STATION, Calif. – The National Guard is part of a multi-agency... MORE

Air Force Gen. Steve Nordhaus, chief, National Guard Bureau, and Army Senior Enlisted Advisor John Raines, SEA to the CNGB, visit National Guard members supporting wildland firefighting in Southern California, Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, Calif., Jan. 11, 2025. Thousands of National Guardsmen are involved in multiple air and ground firefighting in the Los Angeles Basin and Southern California.

Wyoming, Nevada Guard Aircrews Assist California Firefighters
January 13, 2025 — CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Three Wyoming Air National Guard C-130s equipped with the U.S. Forest Service’s... MORE

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 153rd Airlift Wing load and install the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems onto a C-130H Hercules aircraft in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Jan. 10, 2025, in preparation to support firefighting efforts in the Los Angeles area.

California, Nevada, Wyoming Guard Join Firefighting Battle
January 10, 2025 — MOFFETT AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Calif. - Hundreds of National Guard members are now involved in... MORE

U.S. Air Force Airmen with the 129th Rescue Wing, California Air National Guard, at Moffett Air National Guard Base, Calif., prepare an HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter to help battle the Palisades Fire Jan. 9, 2025.

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Video by John Benedetto

MHSRS 2024: Medical Assessment and Readiness System (MARS)

Defense Health Agency

Aug. 26, 2024 | 2:52

The Military Health Research Symposium honors the Medical Assessment and Readiness System (MARS) Team, based at Womack Army Medical Center for their outstanding contribution to military medical research.

The Medical Assessment and Readiness System (MARS) became fully functional at Womack Army Medical Center (WAMC), Fort Liberty, NC in January 2020. The original database was created by the Army Office of the Surgeon General (OTSG) in 2011 at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine. Its primary purpose was to provide medical readiness data in the form of the Medical Readiness Assessment Tool (MRAT), which later became embedded into the Army’s Medical Operational Data System to allow providers and commanders to see a soldier’s medical readiness to deploy. It thus became the first predictive analytics solution to service member medical readiness forecasting. In 2016, subsequent OTSG personnel assigned to maintain the MRAT program were not well-positioned to conduct the requisite clinical research activity needed to validate and enhance the system. This began a 4-year process of regulatory approvals for WAMC to acquire this database with the support of our partner, The Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP) of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD. MARS is now a repository continually updated to capture longitudinal sociodemographic, clinical, and administrative statuses. It has two fully dedicated research servers, full system access clearance for our database managers and data scientists, complete Institutional Review Board and HIPAA approval, and fully executed data sharing agreements with the Defense Health Agency and other Department of Defense (DoD) organizations. MARS includes data on over three million active-duty service members. The longitudinal datasets permit retrospective observation of health and military career trajectories for over 15 million person-years of active service. Over 100 variables are available for analyses to include demographic and anthropomorphic data, body composition and vital signs, diagnostic and procedure codes from direct and purchased care, complete health record data to include laboratory and imaging results, deployment history, military occupational specialty, unit assignment, promotion history, medical profile data, and standard testing such as physical fitness and weapons qualification scores.