Pentagon Budget Cut May Affect Air Force Firefighting Wing in Colorado

The 302nd Airlift Wing may get smaller but its mission will remain just as vital, an Air Force general said during an inspection of the Peterson Air Force base Unit.

Maj. Gen. Stayce Harris, whose 22nd Air Force includes the wing, said the Pentagon is pushing ahead with plans to eliminate an active- duty squadron from the ranks of the reserve wing. If Congress approves, that would cut 200 airmen and four C-130 transport planes from the base.

Harris said she expects the wing to fly fewer transport missions after the cut, but its focus on aerial firefighting won’t change.

“I speak with great pride about the special missions we have,” she said after last week’s inspection.

The wing’s pilots and crews are trained to drop retardant to slow the advance of wildfires and played a critical role in battling the Waldo Canyon and Black Forest fires in El Paso County.

“We will be fully mission capable with eight aircraft,” Harris said.

The firefighting skills of the wing could be tested in 2015. A report this month from the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, predicts significant wildfire risk this spring in drought-ridden Southern California, and normal fire conditions in the balance of the western states.

The Air Force is pulling active duty crews from reserve units equipped with older models of the C-130, including the 1990s versions flown by the 302nd. The the new C-130J model has upgraded electronics, engines and propellers.

The 302nd is beginning to transfer active-duty airmen to other units and expects all 200 from the squadron facing cuts to be gone by September.

Under legislation passed in 2014, though, the Air Force must certify that firefighting won’t suffer before the 302nd cut is made official.

Harris, who took command of the 22nd Air Force in July and was on her first visit to Peterson, said she’s quickly come to admire the propeller-driven C-130, a transport that has been in Air Force service since 1954.

“I just got checked out Thursday in the C-130,” said Harris, who served as a part-time airman and civilian airline pilot before taking command of the 22nd.

“It’s the one plane in the Air Force that does everything,” she said.

The 302nd does a bit of everything, too. In addition to the firefighting job, the wing also stays ready for combat transport missions.

In the coming weeks, crews from the 302nd are expected to head to Poland for training alongside America’s North Atlantic Treaty Alliance allies. It’s a mission that coincides with America’s attempts to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine with a series of warlike training exercises to bolster partners in the region.

“This is going to be a great experience for them,” Harris said.

And while the drawdown hits the wing, Harris said standards won’t fall.

“They will be as capable as ever,” she said.

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Contact Tom Roeder: 636-0240

Twitter: @xroederx