 I am Chief Master Sergeant Cameron Peters. I am a flight engineer on the C-130H models. I'm also the 152nd Operations Group Senior Enlisted Leader. So we're out here at Spring Training up here in Boise, Idaho. Spring Training is kind of where we knock off the cobwebs. We haven't flown any aerial firefighting since last season, so it's to prepare us and get us ready for the upcoming fire season. Last season was a big fire season for us. We were deployed for 96 days and we dropped as a MAPS community nearly 23 million pounds of retardant. So coming out here today and this week is really about honing those skills, giving ourselves plenty of opportunity to go fly and do drops in a controlled environment. When we get on an actual fire, we never know what we're going to get, so this is an opportunity for us to maybe make a little bit of mistakes, figure out what it is that we need to focus on for the year. I've been with the Nevada Air National Guard for 25 years now and I have been a current qualified MAPS C-130 flight engineer for the past six or seven seasons. I wouldn't say that I have any special tradition that I do, like rubbing an eight ball or anything of that nature. It's more of just getting into the mindset. As a flight engineer, it's our responsibilities to ensure that we back up the pilots. We run all of the checklists. We monitor all the systems. When we fly MAPS, either in spring training or on an actual fire, some of the normal habit patterns we have when we fly kind of go out the window and we have to do different things. So getting ready for MAPS, it's just really a mindset, good communication with the other crew members and really ensuring that we have safe flight. On a personal level, I enjoy MAPS because it really ties into some of our strategic priorities at the state when it comes to community. We're fighting fires in our community and also neighboring state communities. So to get out there and assist other areas and other agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service or CAL FIRE really allows us to have interagency relationships and build positive rapport and I really enjoy that. It gives us something to focus on differently than our primary federal mission. The significant things that are happening during this training are we're upgrading new crew positions. One of the things that happens in MAPS is, yes, there's continuation training that takes place and we all have to knock off those cobwebs and get back focused. But we're also upgrading people, first-time loadmasters, first-time flight engineers, first-time navigators, first-time pilots. We're upgrading to instructor positions. We're upgrading to aircraft commander positions. So to go out there and really hone our skills in this area, we've had some weather problems, that's really the significant thing that's taking place. Well last year we trained down in San Bernardino with the California Air Guard. It was the Nevada Air Guard and the California Air Guard. Whereas this season we've brought all four of the MAPS units together. The Wyoming Air National Guard, Colorado Springs Reserve, California and Nevada and we've all come together. Four airplanes, we're running three pits on the Gowen tanker base side. We're running a pit over on the Boise side. So really it feels more realistic than last year when we just had two units doing it. And then obviously the year before we were in COVID, we were kind of doing it remotely. It felt really weird. So this year has really been back to kind of a normal, steady state. When it comes to preparing for the actual season, there's so many things that we can't replicate here. When you get out on a fire, there's not smoke. There's not a bunch of commercial tankers out there. The radio chatter is not as big. So when we simulate this environment here, we can do multiple reps. Kind of like going to practice for a basketball game or a football game. We can practice those reps and really, really get honed in on what we did well and what are the things that we need to work on. So one of the great things about MAFs is it is directly in line with some of our state strategic priorities. One of them being readiness. They call MAFs crews aerial firefighters. But what we really are is airdrop specialists. Firefighters are the gentlemen and women on the ground that have axes and shovels, hand crews. So when it comes to dropping a retardant in front of a fire, that's what we do. If we're on our federal mission, we're dropping personnel. We're dropping equipment in a combat zone. Well, in MAFs, we're dropping retardant. So really, it's similar in the sense of readiness there.