Battling blazes: Local Chairperson Lloyd Nelson (left) of Local 486, Glendive, Mont., missed the annual family picnic he helped arrange when he and other members of the Army National Guard's Batallion 190 our of Billings, Mont., were called on to lend a hand fighting the wildfires that ravaged the state. -- Full story.

BNSF engineer battles wildfires
In 1996, Local Chairperson Lloyd Nelson played a major role in re-establishing the annual family picnic held in Forsyth, Mont., for members of Local 486 (Glendive, Mont.), but he couldn't attend this year.

Instead, Nelson, a locomotive engineer employed by BNSF, was one of some 10,000 who battled the blazes consuming an estimated 645,300 acres in Montana during the worst fire season in decades.

Nationwide, fires burned more than 6.6 million acres this year. To meet the challenge, the armed services, as well as foresters and assorted personnel from the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, and even New Zealand, were called on to help quench the flames.

E-7 Sergeant First Class Nelson, a member of the Army National Guard, Battalion 190, out of Billings, Mont., was just finishing his regular weekend of service when he got the call.

"Montana Gov. Marc Racicot declared a state of emergency," Nelson said. "We received a three-day training course from the U.S.D.A. Forest Service, were broken down into 20-man teams, and I went to work fighting fires for the first time in my life near Helena, where about 80,000 acres were burning. I fought fires near Boulder, Townsend, and other areas from August 10 to the 24th."

The state's Soldier of the Year in 1998, Nelson said serving the country is something of a family tradition. "I've just completed my 20th year in the Army National Guard," he said. "My dad joined the guard in 1955, my brother's got 15 years in, my younger sister has 13 years in, and my other sister served four years in the regular Army."

With two boys, ages 10 and five, a seven-year-old daughter, a railroad job and commitments to the guard, Nelson gives credit to his wife. "I owe Kim a lot," he said. "Especially with me being gone so much, it really takes a lot to hold down the home front."

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