Group reviews 2013 wildfire season

by Mary McHale
AFNORTH Public Affairs

12/10/2013 - TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Representatives from across the United States wildfire fighting enterprise met for a three-day after action review of the 2013 season Dec. 3-5 at the Heritage Club here.

During his opening remarks welcoming the group, Lt. Gen. William Etter, CONR- 1 AF (AFNORTH) commander, praised their efforts of the past season and encouraged the participants to engage in candid conversations about how to improve current practices and procedures.

"This meeting is really needed because this is such an important mission," Etter said. "It's vital we continue to refine our lessons learned and this gathering is the perfect opportunity to do that."

According to Col. Al Wimmer, A3 director, this was one of the busiest modular airborne firefighting season in 41 years of operations.

"This After Action Review is a vital step in closing out the season for MAFFS," said Wimmer. "The team in attendance not only captured lessons but applied them in the form of revised publications, orders and deployment plans for the upcoming season. The air component often acts as the central point of focus, bringing together many different groups from the whole of government to make a mission happen for the American people."

After the initial greetings, participants broke into working groups for the rest of the meeting to study and discuss those lessons learned and develop a way ahead for the 2014 season.

"It was three days packed full of activities and hard work from everyone," Lt. Col. Dawn Junk, meeting facilitator from the AFNORTH Operations Directorate. "The results of everyone's hard work produced positive way aheads."

At the outbrief for Etter, she presented those way aheads. Primary among them was using incident awareness and assessment assets during an event because there's such a large variety of variables that apply to their use.

"We studied this carefully and determined we need to come up with a systematic, across the board process to present this option," Junk said. "We want to develop a concept of operations that clearly presents the capabilities of an IAA asset, no matter its source or whether it's manned or unmanned."

Other group accomplishments included reviewing the AFNORTH operational order and training requirements as well as examining the financial elements of the season.