Airmen bring fallen firefighter home

  • Published
CHANNEL ISLANDS AIR NATIONAL GUARD STATION, Calif. (AFPN) --  Two of the pallbearers who carried the casket bearing the body of California firefighter Steven Rucker had fought alongside him as he defended a house from the Cedar Fire. Another two had served as his captains in the Novato Calif. Fire Protection District where he worked.

The pallbearers brought the casket into the cargo area of an Air Force C-130 Hercules.

The C-130 and its crew are from the California Air National Guard’s 146th Airlift Wing. They flew Rucker’s body to Santa Rosa, Calif. on Nov. 3. from Gillespie Field Airport.

Rucker died Oct. 29 during fires that devastated four Southern California counties, leaving more than 20 people dead, destroying more than 3,500 structures, and burning 743,000 acres.

As the firefighters set the flag-draped casket down on the floor of the airplane, they wept. They turned and consoled one another as they prepared to return their fallen comrade to his wife and two children, his friends, family and colleagues.

“(Returning the body) gives closure to the folks back home,” said Tom Keena, who served as Rucker’s captain in Novato. “And it’s good for the folks in San Diego, too.”

The loss seemed to be felt across the firefighting community -- and beyond.

People of the local community lined the street outside the fence at Gillespie, some standing in their truck beds to get a better view, as hundreds of local, state and federal fire-protection professionals saluted their fallen comrade.

“The firefighting effort put out by these men and women was a heroic effort,” U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter said. “They need to know that every Californian, every family has been made safer by the efforts of this hero.”

“The request to carry a civilian was a unique request,” said Col. Steven Friedricks, 146th Airlift Wing commander and the pilot of the C-130. “It’s not common…but we were honored to do it.

“There’s a special bond between the Guard and the firefighting and law enforcement communities, because many firefighters and police officers are in the Guard,” he said.

The bond might be especially strong between the 146th AW and the public safety community because the wing is one of only four Air Force units across the nation that flies an aerial firefighting mission. Nearly 200 airmen and eight C-130s from California, Colorado, North Carolina and Wyoming aided firefighting efforts on the ground in Los Angeles and Ventura Counties, making retardant drops against the Simi fire from Oct. 27 to 29.

The four wings have been assisting lead agencies such as the National Interagency Fire Center and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for decades, but like many people engaged in the recent firefighting, some of the California Guardsmen were defending their own neighborhoods and homes.