When the first plane flew at Kitty Hawk in 1903, it began an era that has produced some very large aircraft—many of those are military aircraft. In 1937, the U.S. Army Air Corp developed the first firefighting vehicle modified specifically to fight aircraft fires from a commercially produced fire engine.
Vandenberg Space Force Base (VSF) was acquired from the U.S. Army in 1957; shortly after that Point Arguello Naval Air Station on south Vandenberg was added. The firefighters, their stations, and their equipment were also transferred to the new Air Force Base.
Since then, the Vandenberg Air and Space Force’s fire service has evolved into a world-class asset. And the men and women staffing the department have established themselves as what outside audits have concluded were and are “the best in the Air/Space Force.” They are a highly trained multi-disciplined fire/rescue force ready for any challenge.
I say “world class” because that is the domain of military firefighters. Not only do they serve the domestic air bases they are assigned to, but they also serve as part of the communities that are adjacent to and sometimes far distances from their stations. They also serve long-standing military airfields in distant countries and can be and are “deployed” to what’s termed “bare base” locations. These are typically organized quickly to serve a specific military mission that involves the use of aircraft.
I recently read a posting on the VSF Fire Department Facebook page saying that some of their firefighters were dispatched 7,700 miles to provide airfield firefighting capability during the Kabul, Afghanistan, evacuation. I was a U. S. Air Force firefighter for 20 years, so naturally I was interested in how the deployment went.
I tried contacting VSF Public Affairs; I called three times during normal business hours to ask for an interview with the firefighters who had been deployed. The first call went unanswered, so I left a message stating my reason for calling and asking for a return call—I got no response; on the second try I got no answer. Finally on the third try someone answered the phone and directed me to their email-based “workflow portal,” and I sent my request on Sept. 21; I submitted this commentary on Oct. 1, and still haven’t gotten a reply.
During my 20-year career, I was assigned to 13 different “permanent duty stations”; I say permanent because that was the military terminology. Some of those assignments lasted as long as four years, others a year or less.
One of those assignments was to a base under construction in Thailand that was being used to fly B-52 bombers and air refueling tankers over Vietnam. For the first nine months of that assignment, we slept on canvas cots in open air tents equipped with screen walls to keep out the bugs. They had no running water, heat, or air conditioning. The restroom/showers were about 50 feet from our tents and were common to scores of other tents containing eight to 10 men each, and we ate in a semi-permanent field kitchen.
After that we moved to the new barracks; they were permanent multi-story concrete structures that had indoor plumbing, but no interior walls. We used our wall lockers to “build” semi-private sleeping areas.
Our fire station was in two of the tents that had been hastily moved to a location adjacent to the flight line, and our fire trucks were parked in the open out front; the noise from the aircraft engines was incredibly loud all day and all night. We used these tents for the full 11 months I was there. Once again, no running water, we used portable toilets, and there was no protection from the dust that blew in regularly from a nearby road.
I relate this story because it demonstrates that Air/Space Force firefighters are not always in tidy, well-equipped fire stations or off-duty barracks.
While I was on my assignment in Thailand, we didn’t have any threat from hostile fire; the recently deployed VSF firefighters, however, were right in the middle of the hot zone. The VSF Facebook related that VSF firefighters helped treat a baby who was handed over the wall to them by U.S. Marine perimeter guard, which was seen in a picture widely distributed by the media.
I wanted to ask the deployed VSF folks what kind of living conditions they had during the deployment, but without the help of VSF Public Affairs I had no way to speak with them. It’s too bad because their story needs to be told. Where did they sleep, what was their workday like, how were they fed, and did they have adequate restroom/shower facilities during this multi-week deployment?
Deployment isn’t new to VSF firefighters; crews made up of military/civil service teams have been deployed for up to two weeks at a time along with thousands of other federal, state, county, and municipal fire crews to many of the wildfires in California every year. The fire camps they stay in are equipped with shower/restrooms and field kitchens; however sometimes they are required to rough it in what are known as “spike camps” in remote areas.
Sometimes the military misses an opportunity to showcase the sacrifices their troops make while serving their country. Today’s military are all volunteers unlike years of the past when many were randomly conscripted into service. I have the deepest respect for the men and women who volunteer to serve; they are among America’s finest.
Ron Fink writes to the Sun from Lompoc. Send a response via the editor at clanham@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 7-14, 2021.