COLORADO SPRINGS — Fort Carson isn’t the only growing military installation in Colorado Springs.
Peterson Air Force Base’s 302nd Airlift Wing, a reserve unit that fights fires with air drops and hauls cargo in Iraq and Afghanistan, will gain nearly 200 full-time airmen to round out its part-time ranks.
Under a plan designed to make better use of the Air Force’s planes, the 200 pilots, crewmen and mechanics will fly and maintain the wing’s 12 C-130 transports when they aren’t being used by reservists.
“They call it total force integration,” said the 302nd’s commander, Col. Jay Pittman.
The new airmen will also bring a flurry of building at Peterson, with as much as $10 million in construction on the drawing board to house the additional troops.
The first of the new airmen will come this summer as part of a three-year growth plan. To start with, the full-timers will share office space with the reserves.
The 302nd has also been growing over the past two years, adding a Reserve squadron of medical experts in 2008 who specialize in transporting patients by air. That squadron isn’t yet at full strength, but is growing in capability.
“They will have their first live patient mission in May,” Pittman said.
The 302nd is the only combat flying unit in the Air Force-laden Pikes Peak region. The bulk of local airmen are affiliated with the training missions of the Air Force Academy or with Air Force Space command, which manages the military’s satellite constellations.
A prime mission for the 302nd is firefighting. It is equipped with a system that allows the lumbering, four-engine C-130s to carry fire retardant chemicals that can be dropped on wildland blazes.
Last year, the wing had its busiest firefighting season ever. Between June and August, the wing flew 480 sorties against ranging wildfires throughout California.
Airmen are gearing up for this year’s fire season as drought ravages much of the West.
“They absolutely love the mission,” Pittman said. “They take a great deal of pride in it.”
They also have a new generation of firefighting gear to take into battle. The new airborne firefighting equipment is less reliant on ground-based gear, allowing crews to increase the number of sorties they can fly.The wing also has a war-time mission.
The unit is getting ready to send planes and crews overseas for a deployment. Exact details of that deployment, which will start with two planes and their crews, are being worked out, Pittman said.
