910th aerial sprayers battle 'invader' weeds on Utah ranges

HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah -- A C-130 Hercules tactical cargo transport aircraft, assigned to the Air Force Reserve's 910th Airlift Wing, prepares to take off on a flight to apply an herbicide mixture to more than 1200 acres of target areas on the Utah Test and Training Range, approximately a 20-minute flight from here, March 31. The C-130 is equipped with a Modular Aerial Spray System (MASS) and the aircraft's crew is extensively trained to conduct this mission while flying at approximately 100 feet above the surface at a ground speed of 200 knots or more than 337 feet per second. The 910th, based at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, home to the Department of Defense's only large-area fixed wing aerial spray unit, has been tasked, through April 7, with controlling Halogeton, an evasive weed that can hamper bombing test evaluations and unexploded ordinance recovery. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Bob Barko Jr.