Their names are written on two large containers holding 7,000 gallons of fire retardant, which will eventually be pumped inside the bellies of four air tankers at the Ocala International Airport and dropped in front of wildfires throughout the state. Ocala International Airport, pilot Bill Waldman, center of Silver City, NM, walks in front of a the Lockheed P3-A Orion, an air tanker used for dropping fire retardant for fighting forest fires.
Members are often away from home for months at a time, living out of suitcases and eating take-out.
They love what they do and they write their names on the outer walls of the vat because they are honored to be a part of a group known as a tanker base, in this case, Tanker Base Ocala. Ocala International Airport, a plane gets ready to land. Here is the bright pink fire retardant that is dropped from the air tankers, behind is a Lockheed P2V Neptune tanker. When you fly the Florida fires, you don't have that cushion. If you drop in altitude around here you better get permission from the Bureau of Mines.