On Assignment
My 1st assignments have happened finally and so off I've been! My 1st assignment sent me over to the Klamath National Forest for some lightning fires. This was going back home for me and I got to see the family and even stay at home. YAY!! When I go I work in whats called expanded dispatch. We have computers and when the incident commander requests resources (like engines, handcrews, overhead) we use the computer to find people either in the forest or anywhere in the country and they travel to the fire to do their specific job. These jobs range from dispatch stuff, engine crews, handcrews, time recorders, safety people, etc. Yreka Dispatch and everything that handles fires are some squared-away group. When I showed up everything was in order and transitioning into work-mode was easy and seamless. The group working was made of retired folks as well as regular employees, and totalled about 5-6 people in expanded. Usually one handles orders for overhead, one for crews, one fo...