Air Force Reserve Command dispatched a third specially equipped C-130H transport aircraft on June 27 to California to fight raging wildfires there. The aircraft, from the 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson AFB, Colo., deployed to McClellan Airfield in Sacramento to assist firefighters in battling the Corral fire north of Sacramento and the Piute fire south of the city, including the Sequoia National Forest near Lake Isabella. This C-130, along with seven others operating out of McClellan as of the end of June, are fitted with the modular airborne firefighting system that allows the aircraft to drop 3,000 gallons of fire retardant per mission. Since June 26, when the missions began, these C-130s have dumped more than 117,000 gallons of fire retardant on the flames. (McClellan report by SrA. Stephen Collier)
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.