With a long summer of western wildfires ahead, especially in California, some additional help is coming for fighting the raging infernos. A day after President Trump declared the California wildfires a “major disaster,” the U.S. military said it’s preparing to deploy hundreds of active-duty soldiers with engineering specialties to combat the blazes, Fox News reports.
Roughly 200 active-duty U.S. Army soldiers from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state will ship out in the coming days, according to two defense officials. The unit from the 14th Brigade Engineer Battalion of the 2nd Infantry Division will ship out after training to combat fires this week, one official said.
The combat engineers specialize in demolition and construction, normally as used in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the unit has deployed over the past decade. The troops will join crews flying four active-duty Air Force C-130 cargo planes flying over California to drop water and fire retardant liquids. California National Guard units are also battling the blazes.
Thank God for active duty help with Holy Fire near my house. While they’re here, perhaps they could also help the National Guard with the porous Mexican border. Build a military Wall. Like the Coast Guard and Navy do out at sea.
Bless them for fighting the fires. Much higher priority than being stationed at the border to solve a pretend, fear-mongering “crisis”:
“ Unauthorized migration has dropped precipitously since 2000, due to macroeconomic conditions, the end of a massive cycle of migration from Mexico (1970-2005), and a dramatic toughening of U.S. immigration laws and border enforcement since 1996.””
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-border-crossings-20180405-story.html
I actually live near the border, and have never personally been affected by migration, legal or otherwise. I’d definitely rather have our brave service members fighting the fires, which are a much more imminent danger.
Sorry about the rant, but I’m genuinely sick of manufactured fear-mongering.