McChord C-17s transport North Carolina troops to Montana

MCCHORD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. (USTCNS) --- In an effort to provide relief for the call for help from Montana firefighters, soldiers from Fort Bragg, N.C., will be the fifth active-duty unit sent to help and the seventh mission flown by crews from McChord Air Force Base, Wash., as the military joins the battle with civilian firefighters in the west.

McChord sent three of its C-17 Globemaster III's to Pope Air Force Base, N.C., Aug. 27 to pick up more than 300 soldiers from Fort Bragg and take them to Missoula, Mont., to help battle the more than 30 major fires burning about 400,000 acres in the state.

Currently, there are barely enough firefighters in Montana to monitor all of the fires, much less battle them, according to J.D. Coleman, fire information officer at the Northern Rockies Coordination Center in Missoula.

The soldiers from Fort Bragg will provide some relief to the situation. The 18th Airborne Corps Artillery soldiers will be joining the 1,700 active-duty and 1,800 National Guard troops already in the west battling blazes.

Six McChord C-141 aircrews have already shuttled military firefighters in the war against raging wildfires across the western United States this summer. The first five were active-duty crews and the sixth was an Air Force Reserve crew from the 446th Airlift Wing here. The last three missions flown by McChord aircraft were to transport soldiers from Fort Hood, Texas, and Marines from California to Idaho.

The C-17 crews departed here Aug. 27 for North Carolina. They will transport the soldiers to Montana Aug. 28, and return home the same afternoon. (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).