CHARLOTTE - The North Carolina Air National Guard (NCANG) will deploy crews, maintenance personnel and two C-130 cargo aircraft to Klamath Falls, Oregon, to assist the U.S. Forest Service in firefighting efforts to contain, control, and extinguish wildland fires on designated areas. 

The aircraft, part of the 145th Airlift Wing (AW) based at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport here, departure is scheduled for 10 a.m., Thursday, July 20.  Members of the media wishing to cover activities surrounding this mobilization may do so by contacting  Tech. Sgt. Brian Christian at 919-612-5061 .  All activities will occur at the NCANG base located at 5225 Morris Field Drive, Charlotte.

Aircraft will be staged at Klamath Falls, Oregon with approximately 50 NCANG members deploying to operate the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, or MAFFS.  Since 1974, MAFFS has saved land, lives and property from wildland fires in the United States and abroad.  MAFFS is only activated when all other air tanker resources are committed.

The MAFFS mission equips C-130s with a fire fighting apparatus that is loaded into the aircraft's cargo area.  The MAFFS unit itself is a series of pressurized tanks that hold 3,000 gallons of flame-retardant liquid called Phos-Chek.  Directed by ground crews and led to the fire site by a U.S. Forest service lead plane, MAFFS aircraft drop retardant along the leading edge of a fire to block the spread of flames.   

The North Carolina contingent will operate two C-130s equipped with MAFFS modules.  The third aircraft will transport other equipment and provide maintenance support.    This is the third time this year that NCANG Airmen have fought forest fires using the MAFFS.

Only four units operate MAFFS.  In addition to North Carolina's unit, the Air National Guard's 146th AW from Channel Islands, CA, the 153rd AW from Cheyenne, WY and the Air Force Reserve's 302nd AW from Colorado Springs, CO., make up the MAFFS force.  The aircraft are the property of DoD and the modular containers are the property of the U.S. Forest Service

The length of this mission is undetermined and will depend on the demands of the fire fighting efforts.

The North Carolina Air National Guard is part of the North Carolina National Guard, which is a part of the North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety.

For related information on MAFFS please see the following websites:

North Carolina National Guard:  www.nc.ngb.army.mil

U.S. Forest Service MAFFS page:  http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/aviation/fixed_wing/maffs/system.html

National Interagency Firefighting Center:  WWW.nifc.gov