Flying Apache attack helicopters in Iraq and Afghanistan prepared Tim Cherwin for his current job.
The foe might be different but sometimes it's just as dangerous battling forest fires in a twin-engine turboprop plane.
War zones and forest fires in the western United States — which Cherwin has fought from the air for the past five years — offer similar challenges: mountainous terrain, low altitude flying, extreme heat, rapidly changing weather conditions and endangered lives. "It's a rewarding type of flying," Cherwin said Friday at EAA AirVenture.
For the first time, firefighting planes and their crews are being saluted at the week-long aviation convention, which ends Sunday. More than a dozen firefighting aircraft have gathered in Oshkosh with some of the airborne tankers demonstrating water drops during afternoon air shows.