FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Twelve Oklahoma National Guardsmen training in Arizona proved the OKNG’s wildland firefighting program is ready to respond to wildfires when they were called to battle a real-world fire caused by lightning at Camp Navajo, near Flagstaff on Aug. 15.

The Guardsmen were taking part in a two-week operational readiness exercise when a wildfire broke out and the Camp Navajo Fire Department requested the OKNG handcrew's assistance in containing the fire.

Brian Weatherford, Oklahoma Military Department wildland firefighting program manager and crew boss for the readiness exercise, said the unexpected call-up gave the Citizen-Soldiers a chance to turn training into real-world experience.

“Responding to the real-world incident allows our crew to gain experience and continue their training,” Weatherford said, noting the tasks assigned by the incident commander directly supported the operational readiness exercise's training objectives. “Task books will now be able to have wildfire components checked off for those trainees.”

After the fire was identified by a fire lookout tower on the afternoon of Aug. 15, The Oklahoma National Guard crew, dubbed OK Crew 1, was tasked with supporting the incident commander alongside the other firefighting agencies.

Staff Sgt. Jonathan Sabala, an infantryman assigned to the 1st Battalion, 279th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, said the Oklahoma Soldiers were in the fire watchtower when the fire was identified and were able to see the process watch tower personnel use to notify local fire departments of emerging wildfires.

“We saw the fire start pluming, and started planning immediately,” Sabala said. “We were able to hike down the hill to our vehicles and rushed up to the fire where we started digging an indirect handline… watching everyone work together was great.”

Before the fire broke out, the Guardsmen were taking part in a two week operational readiness exercise at Camp Navajo designed to challenge the Citizen-Soldiers to apply what they learned at Camp Gruber Training Center in Oklahoma to a simulated wildfire in unfamiliar terrain.

Weatherford said the exercise pushes participants beyond the classroom environment of the program’s initial training. During that training, the Soldiers learn the basics of being a Type 2 handcrew.

Type 2 handcrews consist of 18-20 firefighters who are qualified to perform lower complexity fire suppression operations such as holding fire line, also known as a handline, constructing indirect fire line, mop up, fireline rehabilitation, back haul of equipment and other less complex missions.

As a Type 2 handcrew, one of OK Crew 1’s most important tasks is constructing handlines, a skill they practiced repeatedly during the exercise and put to immediate use when the wildfire broke out.

A handline, also known as a fireline, is a strip of ground where burnable vegetation is removed down to mineral soil that cannot burn or smolder. Firelines, which resemble hiking trails, vary in width but are typically twice the height of the closest vegetation.

“The importance of coming out here is to take what they’ve learned in that 58 hour entry-level class and make sure they understand what the job will be,” Weatherford said. “It isn’t just building handlines for two hours; it’s building handlines for four or five days. It’s not carrying a chainsaw a couple of miles; it’s carrying and using a chainsaw for 14 days. It’s all the things they don’t get to physically do in the class - they get to do out here in the actual environment they will be asked to operate in.”

In addition to handlines, Guardsmen also trained on building water bars, which are small channels dug along dozer lines to control erosion and reduce the need for future repairs. They also practiced thinning vegetation on the ground and removing ladder fuels, the low limbs that can carry fire into the tree canopy.

Three of the Soldiers taking part in the exercise also work as firefighters at home.

Sgt. Braxton Bowers is a volunteer firefighter in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, Sgt. Trent Kirkpatrick works as a firefighter at Camp Gruber Training Center, and Capt. Jeff Seebeck works as a full-time firefighter with the Edmond, Oklahoma Fire Department.

The Soldiers said they joined the wildland firefighting program to build their firefighting skills and protect communities statewide.

“This mission falls into the Guard’s mission, which is first and foremost to protect our state and nation,” said Bowers, a horizontal construction engineer assigned to the 120th Engineer Battalion, 90th Troop Command. “One of the things that affects our state is wildfire and this prepares us to meet that mission. It educates and equips us to fight wildfires as a team.”

The training Bowers and his fellow Guardsmen are receiving could be crucial as wildfire risks in Oklahoma continue to rise.

According to the National Interagency Coordination Center's Wildland Fire Summary and Statistics Annual Report for 2024, which compiles data from state, tribal, and federal firefighting agencies, the state experienced 3,041 wildfires in 2024 that burned 383,592 acres - a nearly 140 percent increase of acres burned over the 10-year average from 2014 to 2023.

Weatherford said while other state and federal agencies have personnel who can form Type 2 teams, the OKNG wildland firefighting program began with the goal of developing Oklahoma’s first Type 2 handcrew dedicated to providing the state with a trained and disciplined manpower who can assist agencies statewide.

“This is the gap we’re trying to fill,” Weatherford said. “Oklahoma has plenty of Type 6 engines, plenty of water tenders and dozers. We don’t need to fill that, but the capability to put a hand crew into action doesn’t organically exist and that’s where we said ‘let’s fill that gap and see if we can do good for the state and surrounding area.’”

Weatherford said the wildland fire operations program has trained more than 100 Guardsmen since the program began, adding the operational readiness exercises serve as a way for Guardsmen to continue their firefighting education and maintain currency in their new trade.

Seebeck, battalion logistics officer for the 345th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion, 90th TC, volunteered for one of the Oklahoma National Guard’s first wildland firefighting courses and said he joined the program as a way to improve his civilian career as a firefighter while broadening his ability to respond to fires across the state.

“That’s why I got in the Guard in the first place–to help our citizens. I like helping out my community and that’s what I’m in this for,” Seebeck said, adding the Wildland Firefighting Program benefits him in multiple ways, from building leadership skills that support his role as an officer in the Oklahoma National Guard to gaining experience that strengthens his civilian firefighting career.

He added that the program is physically demanding but also fosters camaraderie by bringing together Soldiers from different backgrounds and military specialties.

During this exercise, each of the Oklahoma Army National Guard’s major commands, including Camp Gruber Training Center, were represented with officers, noncommissioned officers and junior enlisted Soldiers ranging in military occupational specialties from infantrymen to engineers to logistics specialists.

“For me, the big, encompassing thing is the leadership,” Seebeck said. “In my position as a leader and officer in the National Guard, I get different types of experiences with different people from all over the Guard in this program. That helps my civilian career as I move up in my career here, as well as the fire [department] side helps me get experience.”

Bowers said the WLFF program’s focus on leadership development and the camaraderie among volunteers played a key role in his decision to reenlist after his initial six-year commitment.

“This is the reason I wanted to stay in the Guard,” Bowers said. “I’m in and around the community I love, both in my civilian life and in the military, and it’s helping me give back to my state.”




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