Description
Computer made/mounted on naugahyde/velcro 4.5 inch-115mm
146th AIRLIFT WING (AMC)
The 146th Airlift Wing is a unit of the California ANG, stationed at Channel Islands ANGS, CA, operating the Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules aircraft and is a combat ready organization prepared to support the U.S. and allied forces, as well as provide disaster response, humanitarian relief, and large-scale aerial firefighting capabilities to the state of California and the nation.
Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS)
The 146th is one of only four C-130 Air Guard and AF Reserve units whose contribution to the nation’s aerial fire fighting capability includes equipment and techniques for efficient, effective suppression of large wildland fires from the air. Since 1974, using the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) units supplied by the U.S. Forest Service and mounted in four C-130s, the wing’s aerial fire fighting crews have been credited with saving many lives and countless millions of dollars’ worth of structures, forests, and brush land in California, and many other States and countries as well, taking part in over 5,000 aerial firefighting missions in California and across the Western United States saving valuable property, natural resources, and lives. Prior to the period covering 2019-2021 – which produced two of the three largest wildfires in California’s history – the fire seasons of 1993 and 1994 were the worst on record. The Malibu fires of 1993 literally burned to the edge of the 146th AW’s base. But it was in 1994, with over 55,000 wildfires raging throughout the western States, that the 146th, along with three other MAFFS-equipped guard and reserve units flew nearly 2,000 missions, dropping fifty-one million pounds of fire retardant. The 146th has been involved in every major wildfire in recent history, to include the Thomas Fire, the Woolsey Fire, the August Complex Fire, The Dixie Fire, The Mendocino Complex Fire and the Rim Fire. In 2021, the 146th Airlift Wing finished constructing a permanent fixed-base retardant reload pit on its parking ramp, enabling the base at Channel Islands to provide a valuable strategic location for Southern California Aerial Firefighting. The new fire-retardant ground tanks have increased the storage capability five-fold from a 10,000-gallon capacity to 50,000 gallons to accommodate more MAFFS aircraft and the U.S. Forest Service’s Very Large Air Tankers (VLAT’s) with water and fire retardant solution.