Engineer 18(?) with two contractor trucks in the closed down Wildomar OHV area to work on a well. Hopefully this is a sign they are considering reopening the area in 2020.
Call sign list to date:
Brush 288
Comms 22, 27, 28, 29 (not specific to Cleveland - good to listen to for comms tech info)
2Charles1 (supervisor?)
2Edward 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12
Engineer 325
2King 1 & 5 (canine units)
Lookout 03, 41, 50, 51 57, 62 (Palomar)
Patrol 21, 22, 23, 33, 34, 41, 42
Prevention 24
Ranger 2
Rec 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31
Trails 21
2Tom 2 (LEO Trainee)
Utility 36
2 Charles 1 is the patrol captain for the Cleveland. LE also has "Lincoln" units. I don't remember where they fit in order of supervision. I think they are a higher level than a Charles unit. I think I've seen the list in late Hubby's notebooks. Then there are some "David" units. They are special agents in charge of law enforcement for a group of forests and all I remember is that the forests near where I lived in the western Sierra foothills was a "central" zone or area. They use a number for the zone and I think there are 4-5 of them in California. The numbers follow the "David" IDer so they don't get confused with national forest IDers. Safety (not just fire but safety on forests with a big workforce)
Back to the Cleveland - the districts are numbered from north to south beginning with a 2 for the Trabuco District, 3 ror Palomar and 4 is the Descanso District. The Supervisor's Office people use 1. Engineers are the drivers/engine operators on each engine. Engine 331 would be a Type 3 engine on the Palomar District. I'm not sure how they assign the 1, 2, 3 . . . . order. This engine would have Captain 331, Engineer, 331, and AFEO (assistant fire engine operator) 331. The Cleveland also shows Apprentice 331 and Senior Firefighter 331. Firefighters identify by "Firefighter, Last Name, Engine Number" or just by "Firefighter - Last Name." I think the AFEO is the assistant captain not the assistant engineer as I believe the job description title for a captain is "Supervisory Fire Engine Operator" (SFEO). The AFEO is the captain on the SFEO's days off when the engine is staffed 7 days. Each Type 3 has 5 people on it daily which requires a crew of 7. The other fire identifiers are well known, Water Tender, Fuels (fuel management), Chief (the forest's fire management officer - FMO), Division (District FMO) and other positions such as dispatch center manager, aviation officer, training officers, etc.; Battalion (sometimes assistant FMO, sometimes suppression battalions assigned by areas of a district), when there is a fire prevention officer they can be called Prevention Battalion, Captain, Engineer. Superintendent (hotshot crews and helitack crews), Air Attack and Utility (chase trucks for engines). There are also patrols, which are Type 7 engines with one person called a FPT (Fire Prevention Technician). Prevention units have a FPT without a tank and pump. "Safety" can either work for fire management or work for an entire national forest. On an incident "Safety" is a designated ICS position.
Rangers are district rangers so on the Cleveland there is Ranger 2,Ranger 3 and Ranger 4. Each ranger district has a variety of people (positions) assigned functionally with those being timber, range, recreation, wildlife and watershed. Those who head up a function are called "Officers" in California, so districts would have Timber Officers, Recreation Officers, etc. These people are usually "Acting District Rangers" as designated by the District Ranger when they are gone. THe lowest level of "line authority" is the district ranger and the primary staff officers are staff and not line officers, unless some line authority is delegated to them by the district ranger. The Cleveland has a lower workload in Timber and Range so they have "Resource Officers" that cover those functions as well as wildlife and watershed. Each district also has a Recreation Officer. Lands is another function that includes special use permits, land exchanges and the very rare land purchases. On many forests and districts Lands is sometimes combined with recreation, especially outside California where workloads ar not as heavy. Archaeologists often work for the Recreation Officer as well. Sometimes they work for resources. If you hear a single number following "Resources" or "Recreation": (always shortened as "Rec") it is one of these staff officers and the number will be the district number. So Rec 4 is the recreation officer on the Descanso district and Resources 2 is the resources officer on the Trabuco district. Rec 1 would be the recreation staff officer in the Supervisor's Office so is in charge of recreation on the whole forest. Another activity that gets a unique identifier is "OHV" which is Off Highway Vehicle management. Those folks work for the recreation officer. Other identifiers you might hear on various forests in California are, Wilderness, Supervisor (Forest Supervisor and Deputy Forest Supervisor), Wildlife, Maintenance, Lands, Special Uses, Hydrology, Aquatics, Silviculture (exams stands of trees and recommends harvest levels, etc.), Adim, Engineering, C&M (construction and maintenance), Construction, PIO (public information officer), PAO (public affairs officer), VIS (Visitor Information Services). Utilities (may include the forest's civil engineers, heavy equipment operators, sewer plant operators, water system operators, plumbers and carpenters), Admin, Repair (fleet mechanics), Botany, Nordic (X Country Ski trails/area management), OSV (over snow vehicles), Trails, Archeology, Ecosystem, and Fisheries, All of this depends on the characteristics of a forest, workloads, transportation complexity and federally owned: buildings/grounds, water systems, sewer systems, roads, bridges, campgrounds, interpretive sites, etc.
"The Notebooks" late Hubby have radio identifier lists for 12-18 national forests around the country, but mostly in California. Late Hubby and I were clueless about Forest Service, National Park Service and BLM organizations for about 5 years after moving to the Sierra foothills. I belonged to a informal women's group in town and we had two district rangers, one USFS and one NPS. They came over for dinner at our place one night and explained this all and bringing the radio identifier lists for their units. The notes Hubby took that night are still in "The Notebooks" that on bookshelves are nearly 48" in width standing upright. The remaining 24" of the radio bookshelf is occupied by old editions of Police Call, Dan Rollman's excellent directories, ham radio books and books with paramedic used terms as well as electric utility terms. My Daddy also has files from Region 3 (AZ NM), but most is older than 1987, the year he retired from the USFS. He is also a great source for USFS, NPS and BLM organization structure as he often worked with and sometimes for those other agencies short term. At 92 he can still type and wrote most of this post.
Sorry for the length of this post. This can be useful information for those listening to these agencies.
