146th Airlift Wing

146th Airlift Wing
115th Airlift Squadron Modular Airborne Firefighting System (MAFFS) C-130J Hercules aerial firefighter
Active	1943-Present
Country	United States
Allegiance	California
Branch	Air National Guard
Type	Wing
Role	Tactical Airlift, Fire Suppression, Med-Evac
Part of	California Air National Guard
Garrison/HQ	Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, Oxnard, California.
Tail Code	Green Stripe "Channel Islands"
Commanders
Current commander	Colonel David Bakos
Insignia
146th Airlift Wing

The 146th Airlift Wing (146 AW) is a unit of the California Air National Guard, stationed at Channel Islands Air National Guard Station, Oxnard, California. If activated to federal service, the Wing is gained by the United States Air Force Air Mobility Command.

The 115th Airlift Squadron assigned to the Wings 146th Operations Group, is a descendant organization of the 115th Observation Squadron, established on 16 June 1924. It is one of the 29 original National Guard Observation Squadrons of the United States Army National Guard formed before World War II. It is the oldest unit in the California Air National Guard, having almost 90 years of service to the state and nation.

The 146th AW's primary mission is to provide global military airlift capability to a full spectrum of state and federal agencies. Flying the Lockheed C-130J Super Hercules aircraft, the 146th has provided humanitarian relief in the aftermath of hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and other disasters, in California, the United States and internationally.

The 146th is one of four C-130 ANG units whose contribution to the United States' aerial fire fighting capability includes equipment and techniques for efficient, effective suppression of large wildland fires from the air. Since 1974, using the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS) units supplied by the US Forest Service and mounted in four C-130s, the wing’s aerial fire fighting crews have been credited with saving many lives and countless millions of dollars worth of structures, forests, and brush land in California and other states and countries.

MAFFS II was used for the first time on a fire in July 2010, using the latest generation Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. The 146th Airlift Wing was the first to transition to the MAFFS 2 system in 2008, and it remains the only unit flying the new system on the C-130J aircraft.