Reserve Special Mission Units meet at Peterson

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Daniel Butterfield
  • 302nd AW
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo --  Whether a wildfire, hurricane, or oil spill occurs, the Air Force Reserve Comand has units it can deploy quickly to combat nature's fury.

Airmen and aircraft from these three AFRC Special Mission units convened for the first ever AFRC C-130 Special Mission Conference here Jan. 12-13.

"The missions that you do are critical to our nation; missions our country has come to depend upon. Our goal is to help you do the mission, not better because you are already doing great, but help the process, that's what this conference is for," said Maj. Gen. Wallace Farris, Director, Air, Space and Information Operations, Air Force Reserve Command, Robins Air Force Base, Ga.

The AFRC contributes 100 percent of the U.S. Air Force Weather Reconnaissance and Aerial Spray capabilities and 25 percent of the Air Force's Modular Airborne Firefighting System capabilities. All three missions provide significant contributions to our nation's Defense Support to Civil Authorities missions. "We have unique skills within the Air Force Reserve, and in these three missions in particular, which helps bring federal military support quickly and efficiently to civil authorities in their time of need," said Maj. Gen. James Rubeor, AFRC 22nd Air Force commander. 22nd Air Force is the parent command of all three of the special mission units.

The conference brought together experts from the 302nd Airlift Wing here, the 403rd Wing, stationed at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. and the 910th Airlift Wing stationed at Youngstown Air Reserve Base, Ohio to share lessons learned, policies and procedures as well as tackle common support and wing issues.  "Military support to civil authorities has become a complex operation. It's important for us to bring experts from these specialized missions together to talk about what works and what doesn't as well as what needs to be improved," said General Rubeor.

Colorado's 302nd AW is the only AF Reserve unit with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System program designed to aid the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service. Typically, when all other civilian air tankers are activated but further assistance is needed, the U.S. Forest Service can request the aid of the U.S. Air Force's MAFFS flying units.

The 403rd Wing Hurricane Hunters provide command and staff supervision in support of weather reconnaissance and is the only Department of Defense unit tasked to organize, equip, train and perform all hurricane weather reconnaissance in support of the Department of Commerce. The 403rd Wing is responsible for coordination, collecting and communicating critical weather data to the National Hurricane Center during flights into hurricanes and tropical storms.

The 910th Airlift Wing provides mission ready forces, airlift and aerial spray operations and base operating support. The Department of Defense tasks the 910th AW to maintain the DoD's only large area fixed-wing aerial spray capability to control disease vectors, pests of vegetation and undesirable vegetations, and to disperse oil spills in large bodies of water. Missions may be executed in combat areas, on DoD installations or in response to Presidential declared disasters/emergencies.


Topics at the conference will include legal parameters, financial issues, interagency agreements and relationships, command and control agreements, public affairs and logistics support, among others.