COBB — Helicopter pilot Thomas Humann worked many prestigious flying jobs before he fell in love with fighting forest fires.
“It”s the best flying job that I”ve ever had,” Humann said. “It”s the most fun, most rewarding flying that I”ve ever done in my life.”
Humann, 40, was raised in Massachusetts. He attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. and, upon graduating in 1993, received a commission into the U.S. Marine Corps. He entered as a Second Lieutenant before he enrolled in flight school in 1994 and transferred to the helicopter division.
“That”s how I ended up in California, starting in 1996,” he said. “That was when I actually started my tours in the Fleet Marine Corps flying (Bell) Super Cobras. I flew those out of Camp Pendleton, deploying twice over to the Persian Gulf.”
He took part in enforcing the Iraqi no-fly zones over Kuwait in the Persian Gulf from 1997 to 2000 before he left the Fleet Marine Corps and enrolled in Helicopter Marine Squadron 1, the squadron that flies the President and other members of the executive branch.
“The squadron accepts a small number of pilots each year, and it does so based on an application process,” he said. “You have to be vouched for, as far as your experience levels. The second component to acceptance into the squadron is being able to pass the security check to get a top secret clearance.”
The squadron has tenure of four years, which consists of training with the helicopters, learning about the top secret aspects of the job, such as top secret locations and emergency procedures, planning out trips and staging helicopters ahead of the President to fly him around after he disembarks Air Force 1.
“The President never flies in anybody else”s helicopter other than ours,” he said. “Anywhere the President goes, the helicopter gets packaged up and shipped.”
For planned presidential trips, Humann said the helicopter is shipped out as much as a week ahead of the trip on a Boeing C-17 cargo plane and staged at a secure location. He said more than one helicopter may be shipped out and staged in different locations as needed.
After flying as a co-pilot during Sept. 11, which included transporting then-Vice President Dick Cheney to an undisclosed location, Humann became a pilot-in-command. He would fly President George W. Bush around as well as set up the president”s itinerary and contingency plans.
A memorable trip for Humann was when he flew President Bush above the Cedar fire in that took place in San Diego County in 2003 The Cedar fire was the largest fire in recorded state history, having burned more than 280,000 acres and 2,800 buildings, including more than 2,200 homes.
“On the heels of that experience in San Diego, CDF (the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, now CAL FIRE) made quite an impression on me,” he said. “We worked very closely with a couple of chiefs from CDF.”
Humann said he stayed in touch with the chiefs who provided him with information on testing to become an aviation safety officer for CAL FIRE when he got out of the squadron in 2005.
Upon being accepted for the position, he moved to Sacramento.
“I had no experience in Northern California before, or any fire experience, for that matter,” he said. “But I fell in love with the job right away after witnessing what the guys do out in the field at bases like this (Boggs Mountain Helitack Base). I realized that was my next calling.”
Humann landed the helicopter pilot position at Boggs Mountain in May 2009. His job consists of transporting a crew of five firefighters and two fire captains to the scene of a fire. Upon being dropped off, the crew works together with hand tools to stop the spread of a fire while Humann finds a water source to fill a bucket the crew attaches underneath the helicopter to drop on the fire.
“We”ll typically land pretty close (to a fire) so that they can take action quickly,” he said. “We work in tandem on the fire. I”m doing the flying. I”ll talk to them on the radio and keep track of where they”re at. My water drops will typically be in support of whatever part of the fire they”re working on.”
Humann said he will get water anywhere he feels safe.
“I have to be very aware,” he said. “I”ll take a circle or two around. Small wires are very hard to see, like telephone wires. Any relatively clean water source I”ll go for, provided that there”s no wires and that it”s very easy to descend in to pick up the water, but the water”s very heavy, so I need to have enough spare power to fly up and out of that pond.”
He said his military helicopter training provided him with a lot of transferrable skills.
“Having flown an attack role in the Marine Corps, there”s definitely the same mentality,” he said. “All the missions that we fly are low-level. Sometimes it”s aggressive flying, but all the time it”s very low-level, down around the treetop-level, or in canyons. It”s windy. It”s smoky. It”s a lot of the same things you would have to contend with as a military pilot.”
Humann said he isn”t sure what his future holds. He said he passed on the opportunity to ascend to the position of chief of aviation for CAL FIRE to take the fire pilot job at Boggs Mountain.
“My thought process at the time was to enhance my experience and credibility as a fire pilot before ever taking on that kind of position,” he said.
He said the love he has for his job changed his perspective on moving up the chain of command.
“I would say as long as my body allows me to do this job, this is what I”m going to continue to do,” Humann said.
Kevin N. Hume can be reached at kevin.n.hume@gmail.com or call directly 263-5636 ext. 14. Follow on Twitter: @KevinNHume.
