Local area fire departments lent a hand to firefighters at Travis AFB, Calif., where an eight-alarm fire Aug. 16 destroyed nearly 200 uninhabited housing units, according to an Aug. 17 base release. The fire began about 3 p.m. and continued until around 3 a.m., consuming 167 units and damaging another 11 before firefighters brought it under control. All the units were empty and marked for demolition, which Travis fire chief John Speakman said made the “job a bit easier so we could focus on preventing embers from hitting the occupied houses.” High winds kept the fire raging over 12.4 acres.
Air Force exercises in the Indo-Pacific may soon get even bigger and more robust, as lawmakers move to invest more than $620 million in such efforts. The bulk of that money, contained in a $150 billion reconciliation package currently making its way through Congress, is $532.6 million for earmarked for…