DC-10 Fire Bomber Missions

<p>The morning sun glints off the massive red and white fuselage of a converted DC-10 its distinctive silhouette casting a reassuring shadow across the San Diego airfield. This is just one of twenty-five such aircraft in the fleet of DC-10 Aerial Firefighting Systems LLC perhaps the most innovative civilian firefighting force in American history. Like ancient sentinels these modified commercial aircraft stand ready at strategic bases across California - San Diego Los Angeles San Francisco and Beale Air Force Base in Marysville - prepared to defend the Western United States against its most persistent enemy: wildfire.</p>