By Mike Van Meter
The Bulletin
A Mars-colored sun glared as the Air Force Thunderbirds roared Saturday afternoon, but military hardware yielded to other war machines.
Retardant bomber after retardant bomber lifted and landed on the Redmond airport's main runway to battle the fast-moving Skeleton fire southeast of Bend.
Smoke billowed up thousands of feet from the blaze, then northwest over the airport. At first it tinted the sun, then obscured it completely.
If not for the heavy-laden bombers groaning off the asphalt, the fires in the region would have seemed distant. In that sense, the airport was a prime vantage point for fire-watchers.
Central Oregon Air Show crowds eager for a hard-charging climactic final act settled for an air traffic control display in three parts as the F-16s were forced to break up their performance.
During the second of two delays in the Thunderbirds' act, one bomber landed just seconds after another took off in the opposite direction at a slightly different angle off the same runway. It isn't a common sight in Redmond -- and certainly not standard air show fare -- but they had work to do.
"The firefighters are doing a great job," said Ken Gasior, air show director. "We're glad we we're able to work together with the Forest Service and do both."
Gasior added that the show will go on today -- fire or no fire.
"There will be a show and everything is scheduled to go," Gasior said. "There never was any intent to cancel."
Five bombers ran out of the Redmond Air Center steadily throughout the day, staying down just long enough to refuel and take on new loads of the chemical-and-water mixture that has become one of the main lines of defense against wild land fires.
A total of 56 flights -- a record for the Redmond Air Center -- were made during the day. Fifty-one of those loads went to the Skeleton fire.
Early in the show, the evacuation of the Conestoga Hills subdivision was announced, and all off-duty firefighters were asked to report for fire duty.
An audience of between 15,000 and 20,000 folks saved some of its loudest applause for the retardant bombers and smokejumper planes that took center stage dozens of times between the time the air show gates opened and the end of the final act.
The applause came from people who missed some of what they came to see -- but this was war, and they understood.