Having barely transitioned back to their assigned home station at Peterson AFB, Colo., after a year’s deployment in Southwest Asia, several returning airmen with Air Force Reserve Command’s 302nd Airlift Wing joined other wing members to swing into fire-fighting mode, helping battle raging fires in the Pacific Northwest. The 302nd AW has sent 21 airmen and a fire-fighting equipped C-130 to southern Oregon to counter the worst fire there in 10 years, reports the Colorado Springs Gazette. The wing plans to rotate its crews in weeklong shifts through September.
The 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth, Texas, became the first standalone Reserve unit in the Air Force to get its own F-35s, welcoming the first fighter Nov. 5.