Getting your player ready...
COLORADO SPRINGS — Reserve airmen with the 302nd Airlift Wing wrapped up their annual certification and training runs on Monday, buzzing over treetops northwest of Pikes Peak and readying for a fire season that’s already proven problematic.
The Air Force unit is called to fight fire when all civilian resources are exhausted. In 2011, that meant hundreds of sorties to douse blazes and bomb retardant ahead of fires including blazes in Texas and Mexico.
The big C-130s fly low over the fires, with pilots battling turbulence as the dumps their loads from a specialized system installed in the back of the massive cargo craft.
Read the rest of this report at the Gazette’s military blog,
