LOS ANGELES – U.S. Army Sgt. Ricardo Hernandez watched from a cross street as sporadic traffic passed on the Pacific Coast Highway near Pacific Palisades. The late afternoon sun glinted off his sunglasses as a man on a bicycle rode up to his location.
A light-wheeled vehicle mechanic with the 149th Chemical Company, California Army National Guard, Hernandez’s duty — staffing a traffic control point — was different than his normal duties under the hood.
The man on the bike, a resident looking for updated information on wildfires that devastated the Los Angeles area, was like many who approached Hernandez at the checkpoint.
“I referred him to a website where he could find that information,” he said.
Hernandez was one of the roughly 600 Soldiers of Task Force 49, made up primarily of Soldiers with the California Army Guard’s 49th Military Police Brigade and responsible for safety and security in many areas impacted by the wildfires.
“We currently have two missions: traffic control points and we also have roving patrols,” said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Manny Arino, commander of TF 49.
Both missions are designed to prevent both looting and people coming back into areas that local authorities haven’t yet cleared, he said.
“Because of the damage that they have in these areas, it’s just not safe for the public to come in right now,” said Arino.
More than 2,700 National Guard members have responded to the wildfires. In addition to security operations, Guard members have assisted in firefighting efforts on the ground and in the air.
Ground efforts were undertaken by Task Force Rattlesnake, a joint task force that integrates California Army and Air National Guard members with CALFIRE, the state agency responsible for wildfire response.
“CALFIRE offers us facilities, training, captains and stuff like that, while the California National Guard offers the Soldiers who volunteer to go out there and fight wildfires,” said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Deng Deng, with Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, California Army Guard and a member of TF Rattlesnake.
Air National Guard aircrews flew C-130 Hercules aircraft equipped with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System. Nestled in the cargo area of the aircraft, MAFFS can drop 3,200 gallons of fire retardant or water in seconds.
“Basically, we provide an aerial firefighting capability, again, in support of civil assets,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Matt Schwegel, a C-130 pilot with the 152nd Airlift Wing, Nevada Air National Guard.
Four units — three Air Guard and one Air Force Reserve — fly the MAFFS mission with eight aircraft.
The Air Guard units include Schwegel’s unit and the 146th Airlift Wing, California Air National Guard, and the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing. All eight aircraft and crews were called in to support wildfire response efforts in the Los Angeles area.
For Schwegel, it’s been a rewarding mission.
“It’s our opportunity to actually make a difference and help out,” he said. “It’s gratifying to be a part of that, to be able to do something and not stay in Nevada and just watch it transpire when you know you have a capability and a skill set to help.”
It’s also a challenging and exciting mission to fly.
“It’s a rush,” said Schwegel. “Our performance envelope is extremely tight. On this, we’re within 10 to 20 knots of our stall speed, we’re max gross weight, and on the drop, we’re 150 feet-ish off the terrain, which is about half of the altitude of a normal tactical airdrop that we do as part of our combat airlift mission set.”
Schwegel said flying the MAFFS mission is a direct application of skills used to fly combat missions, and it hones the pilots’ abilities.
“It brings the best out of our pilots’ flying in that you’re really focused on flying tight parameters because there’s not a lot of slop, not a lot of forgiveness,” he said.
Guard members also participated in mop-up efforts after the fires, ensuring burning embers were extinguished and repairing damage from initial firefighting efforts.
“The goal is to clean up the mess that was made by initial attack efforts,” said CALFIRE Capt. Albert Galli, who led a clean-up crew consisting of California Army Guard Soldiers and CALFIRE personnel.
During firefighting, firebreaks, or lines, were built using bulldozers and hand crews to stop the fire’s progress. Those lines are no longer needed in areas where the fire is out; remediation prevents further damage.
“What we don’t want to have happen is when the rains come, we get a large water flow down these dozer lines and these hand lines,” said Galli. “We can mitigate any flooding issues or mud flows by diverting it with water bars or completely covering up these dozer lines and hand lines.”
The integration between CALFIRE and the Guard is “almost seamless,” said Galli.
“Because CALFIRE is a paramilitary organization, working with the military just seems to work,” he said. “Some of the lingo and the jargon is different, but as far as forming up and performing a mission, we all are good at our job, which is just achieving a common goal.”
Galli said he loves working with Guard Soldiers and Airmen.
“I know that just a few days after training and meeting them I can give them a simple task and they’re going to perform it well,” he said, adding that Guard members don’t need a lot of training.
“They already have a lot of the knowledge and the experience, not in firefighting, but in life experience and combat training,” said Galli. “And so, they just are ready to work, and I think that’s impressive.”
Some Guard members were also personally affected by the wildfires.
“I have two Soldiers that were impacted, directly impacted, by this fire. One of them lost his house,” said Arino, adding he told them they didn’t need to be part of the response mission.
“They wanted to come out,” he said. “They wanted to come out here and be part of the mission. Because, again, these are Soldiers from your community and they, they’re personally invested in making sure their communities are safe.”
Deng, who was part of Galli’s clean-up crew, agreed.
“It’s been amazing, honestly, not just helping people out of fires, but preventing fires from happening,” he said. “Being in the National Guard, you feel like, hey, California is my home. California is what I want to protect most. And anything that’s going on here, I am willing to volunteer and help out as much as I can.”