910th Aerial Spray mission provides fire prevention, valuable training and more in skies over Idaho Published Sept. 30, 2014 By Master Sgt. Bob Barko Jr. 910th Airlift Wing Public Affairs Office MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho -- The Air Force Reserve's Aerial Spray unit, assigned to the 910th Airlift Wing, based at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, completed a 12-day mission here, Sept. 26, 2014. The nearly 40-person team, made up of 757th Airlift Squadron aircrews and entomologists, 910th Maintenance Squadron aerial spray maintenance personnel, a 910th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron aircraft maintenance specialist support team and 910th Communications Squadron personnel, arrived in Idaho, Sept. 15, 2014. During their time at Mountain Home, the team also supported the base's Gunfighter Skies Air Show and Open House by providing their plane as a static display for the event. The Air Force Reservists traveled across the country at the request of the Mountain Home AFB range environmental office. Carl Rudden, the natural resource manager assigned to the 366th Civil Engineer Office, said the installation needed the 910th's unique aerial spray capability to aid in fire prevention on the base's Saylor Creek Range. "We are trying to kill invasive cheat grass here," said Rudden. The 910th's Citizen Airmen worked to accomplish this objective by using a C-130H Hercules tactical cargo transport aircraft modified to carry a Modular Aerial Spray System (MASS) to spray overrun areas with an herbicide product designed to kill the targeted cheat grass. Range personnel plan to later replant the treated areas with native sagebrush which pose a lower fire risk or hazard. This aerial spray mission was the latest in a continuing annual schedule of flights to control cheat grass as part of the fire prevention program on the installation's bombing ranges. During the two-week mission, aircrews achieved aerial spray flight proficiency training while aerial spray entomologists, maintenance and communications personnel received real-world training in product handling and system operations. Air Force Reserve Maj. Jen Remmers, one of the newest members of the 910th team said this was her first mission as a lead entomologist with the unit. Although she may be a new arrival to home of the Department of Defense's (DoD's) only large-area, fixed-wing aerial spray capability, Remmers brings a wealth of experience to the mission. "If it has more than or less than two legs, it's mine," said Remmers, referring to anything from mosquitoes, biting midges and filth flies to snakes that can cause problems for military and civilian personnel on and around military installations across the U.S. and around the world. In her civilian career, Remmers also hones her skills as an entomologist working as a disease vector management consultant. And, while, the target of this particular mission may not be a disease-carrying insect, the methods to eradicate the threat are very similar. "The concepts for (the aerial spray application) of pesticide and herbicide are very similar," said Remmers. "We have to pick the right product for the job and use just enough to get it done. It's about judicious use of the product. We work very hard to be good stewards of the environment." The job of the 910th's team for this mission was to spray 3200 acres or five square miles, an area of ground one mile by five miles wide. The mission's concept of operations called for two to three aerial spray sorties or flights to be performed each day. To do this, members of the aerial spray maintenance squadron worked in conjunction with the Mountain Home AFB Fire Department to load 1900 gallons of water in the MASS system for each sortie. The water combined with approximately eight gallons of the herbicide product and five gallons of an anti-drift material were placed in the tanks of the system and mixed for aerial application over the target area. "The mix comes out to about a sixth of an ounce of product to every seven gallons of water," said Master Sgt. Stephen Feliz, an aerial spray maintainer assigned to the 910th Maintenance Squadron. "The anti-drift material clings to the herbicide product, helps it to fall to the ground and hit the cheat grass." So, where did this invasive cheat grass come from and how did it make its way to the plains and foothills of Idaho now occupied by Mountain Home's Saylor Creek Range? Natural Resource Manager Rudden said the cheat grass is Middle Eastern in origin, coming from the areas of Iran, Iraq, "the 'stans (Afghanistan, Pakitan, etc.)" and more as well as the countries of Mongolia and China. The story of how the invader vegetation got here goes back over 150 years. "The cheat grass was mixed in with wheat seed that came to California from overseas in the 1850s," Rudeen said. "It eventually made its way east to here in Idaho." He continued that the reaction of cattlemen and cowboys to the unscrupulous practice of cutting the feed for their animals with this grass was also the origin of the pesky vegetation's namesake. "They would say 'you cheated me with this stuff' hence the name cheat grass," said Rudden. And while it's easy for us to imagine the consequences of cheating a six-gun toting cowboy in the Wild West, it is hard to think that those involved in the sure to be ill-fated transaction could possibly know the fallout of their deeds would be the cause for the 910th's mission here decades and decades later. "This cheat grass is very flammable... The heat from a vehicle's exhaust system can cause it to ignite, removing it reduces the chance these areas will burn," the natural resources manager said, "This will also help re-establish the sagebrush and also protect the Greater Sage Grouse's habitat." The grouse, a bird, is a candidate for the Endangered Species list. The grouse, along with mule deer and antelope and other animals, use the area's native sagebrush for a living habitat and as part of their diet. "The cheat grass changes the fire pattern and harms these species," said Rudden. "It causes there to be a much shorter time between fires," he continued. "The sagebrush is slow to recover when it burns off so we are grateful that the 910th can come out here to help us with deal with this issue." While there may be other ways to deal with the cheat grass and the fire threat it poses to the environment on the ranges near Mountain Home, the 910th's aerial spray capability is the quickest and most cost effective way to get accomplish the mission. "Doing this from the ground would take forever and be expensive," Lt. Col. John Kochansky, 910th Chief of Aerial Spray and commander for the first week of the mission said. "We can accomplish the job in a shorter amount of time and at a lower cost to the government," Kochansky continued. "Our fliers, maintainers, support and communications personnel also all get valuable training from this mission." So, at the end of twelve days, this team of 910th Airlift Wing Citizen Airmen aided in fire prevention to a sister Air Force installation, helped to protect an increasingly rare species of bird, had the chance to show off their DoD-unique mission capability to thousands of attendees at the installation's air show and received valuable real-world training.