U.S. Military Fighting the Fires in California
“More than just a fighting force, the Defense Department delivers health care, disaster relief and other support to people around the world in humanitarian missions every day.”
The U.S. military has a storied background in participating in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations, whether the disaster is caused by floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, epidemics, oil spills, blizzards or wildfires; whether caused by natural hazards or by human activity; whether at home or abroad.
This honorable tradition goes back as far as just after the Civil War when the Army Corps of Engineers helped freed Black people survive flooding along the Mississippi in 1865, and then in 1882, 1889, and 1906 during the Mississippi Flood, the Johnstown, Pennsylvania Flood and the Sam Francisco Earthquake, respectively.
These disaster relief operations have continued unabatedly into the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2023, the Defense Department listed more than 500 humanitarian missions supported by the U.S. military since 1975.
Today, as Los Angeles County, California, is being ravaged by wildfires of historical proportions, the Defense Department and all its military Branches are providing vital firefighting personnel, equipment and capabilities to Los Angeles County.
The following are some examples of that support as described in recent DoD briefings and press releases:
There are over 1,800 California National Guardsmen who have been activated to assist with firefighting efforts. (The California governor’s office announced Sunday that around 2,500 National Guard soldiers had been activated for the California’s wildfires.)
In addition, hundreds of Nevada and Wyoming Guardsmen are assisting in battling the wildfires, both in the air and on the ground.
There are currently eight Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFF)-equipped C-130 Hercules aircraft assisting in firefighting efforts. The aircraft come from the California Guard, the Nevada Guard, the Wyoming Guard, and from U.S. Air Force Reserve units in Colorado.
These aircraft can drop 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant in about 5 seconds, covering an area one-quarter of a mile long by 100 feet wide. Over the weekend they dropped more than 16,000 gallons of fire suppressant. (Click HERE to watch a MAFFS-equipped C-130 drop a line of fire retardant on the Palisades Fire.
The National Guard announced on Friday that it will also be deploying 10 helicopters that will be used in firefighting and search and rescue operations.
Ten active-duty Navy helicopters equipped with water delivery buckets are ready to assist with relief efforts at San Diego County’s Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton along with 500 active-duty Marines.
March Air Reserve Base, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles in Riverside County, was set up to serve as a staging base for efforts by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Referring to the magnitude and complexity of the disaster, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh commented:
We have to work in coordination with the state and FEMA when it comes to how we address each single fire. And not just the fires; it’s the road clearing, it’s the management, it’s how people get back to their homes. All of this knits together very carefully and in an intricate way that is going to take a little time, it’s going to take some coordinating.
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