Nestor Aliga: Water-bombing the wildfires

I think that if we started quickly and then continuously water-bombed the California wildfires, they would have been contained in much less time and we potentially could have saved a lot of life, money, livelihood, pollution, etc.

How can we find, fund, and implement extra-ordinary — outside-the-box — solutions for improving our domestic support operations for suppressing wildfires? To rehash two ideas that I heard when I was on active duty after 9/11, we need to better utilize our:

• Active duty and Reserve military AIR assets (both fixed-wing and rotary-wing from Air Force at Travis, Navy at Lemoore, Marine Corps at Miramar, and/or even from aircraft carriers, etc.) by equipping aircraft and training pilot crews with 24-hour water-bombing capabilities. I’ve heard some concerns about “can’t fly at night or in thick smoke” (we have nap-of-the-earth capability, let’s train pilots and forward air observers like Close Air Support operations) or “don’t have enough inter-operable water pods” (let’s make them interchangeable for most aircraft) or “posse-comitatus use of federal military” (wildfire control is not necessarily law enforcement), etc.

• We have quartermaster water support units (some are here in California) that can quickly establish, maintain, and operate 10 miles of hose lines (tactical water distribution system) from the sea, bay, or lakes to tactical support areas or to 100,000-gallon water storage pods. By the way, these units can also produce up to 100,000 gallons of potable (drinkable) water from a salt water source. Just wondering — can we possibly use these units in places like Puerto Rico to alleviate their water shortages?

If we are willing to find extra-ordinary solutions, the indomitable American spirit says we are always able. Thanks for listening to my two cents.

— Nestor Aliga/Vallejo

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