News & Columns > Michael P. Neufeld > US Forest Service Names New Tanker Base Manager

US Forest Service Names New Tanker Base Manager

Leslie Casavan Selected for Permanent Post

By Michael P. Neufeld
Sunday, September 7, 2008

San Bernardino, CA – Mountain residents are keenly aware of the importance of having the US Forest Service Air Tanker Base at San Bernardino International Airport.

But most people probably won't know that the Forest Service recently made acting base manger Leslie Casavan the permanent manager.

Base Manager Leslie Casavan stands in front of one of the air tankers assigned to the US Forest Service Air Tanker Base at San Bernardino International Airport. (Photo by Michael P. Neufeld.)

For the past two years, Casavan has been acting as the base manager and as assistant manager. The latter post she accepted in 2006.

Casavan told RIMOFTHEWORLD.net she actually started as a season employee in 2002 at the San Bernardino Air Tanker Base and then two years as an apprentice on the San Bernardino National Forest's San Jacinto District.

In 2002, Casavan returned to San Bernardino International Airport's facility as base engineer.

Tanker 55 at the San Bernardino Air Tanker Base at San Bernardino International Airport provides aerial support for ground crews fighting fires in the mountain communities. (Photo by Michael P. Neufeld.)

The Airtanker facility opened on the site of the former Norton Air Force Base four years after the base closed in 1994 and its air tankers and helitankers provide the first response to wildfires across Southern California and in the mountain communities.

"We moved from Ryan Air Attack Base and became operational in San Bernardino in 1998," Casavan noted. "The headquarters building opened in 2002 next to the helitanker base."

For over 50 years, Ryan Air Attack Base in Riverside County was statistically the busiest air tanker base in the United States. Forest Service records show Ryan delivered an average of 1.5 million gallons of retardant each year until 1998 when the San Bernardino facility opened.

"While the fire season is generally from June to November," she emphasized, "the air attack platform is here all the time. We've even had some military firefighters operations out of here in the past."

US Forest Service Air Tanker Base at the former Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino. (Photo by Michael P. Neufeld.)

Casavan said that from the time the base receives a call from dispatch the tankers and/or helitankers should be loaded and ready to roll in roughly 15 minutes.

In August 1999, the owners of Camp O'Ongo in Running Springs, Tom and Margaret Preston, donated the camp's flagpole to the base. The Fire Lookout Host Program web site for Keller Peak Lookout reports lookout volunteers installed the flagpole at the entrance to the base.

"We have a large public viewing area here at the base," Casavan explained. "We invite visitors to come and watch our operations from the grandstands."

National Forest Association (NFA) volunteers occasionally staff the viewing area at the base. The volunteers provide informal interpretative talks about ground operations at the facility, the different types of aircraft, fire retardant, and additional details of utilizing aircraft to fight wildland fires.

The single runway at San Bernardino International Airport has a weight limit of 97,000 pounds and dual 265,000 pounds and the base in authorized for large airtanker operations and hot reloading programs. The facility is located at 2065 East Perimeter Road in San Bernardino.