The President Thursday visited the western Shasta County area to view the fire damage and ongoing threat to people and infrastructure that the fire poses. It started with a briefing with CalFire, US Forest Service, National Guard, Rural School officials, many local firefighters, as well as some of us local electeds. The Marine helicopters were posed waiting for the arrival of Air Force One, the sound of which the airport didn’t seem big enough to accomodate.
Soon, The President joined us in the hanger for the briefing, shaking hands with all of us gathered [yeah!] before viewing the maps of the fire and damaged areas with the fire personnel before the helicopter flight, which would include Shasta Dam, a federal Central Valley Project structure, 
whose electricity generation and transmission infrastructure had been threatened from shutdown by fire. Accompanying the President on the flight out from D.C.and then the copter ride was our local Congressman Wally Herger, along with Senator Feinstein. Governor Schwarzenegger joined the group here at Redding and was also on Marine One for the copter flight. The President was raring to go as he exclaimed twice, "Awright, lets get going!"
Of course, anyone that has ever been around a Presidential visit knows what a production it truly is and this visit was all of that as well. It takes so much to keep the Commander In Chief secure and with all he needs near him for all possible contingencies. 2 Marine One style helicopters and 2 even bigger Sea Stallion choppers, one with press aboard, made the fire viewing trip. These have all the security, staff and medical folks that are always with the President….I couldn’t tell which guy had "The Football", it’s probably hard to tell for a good reason.
I thought of kindly offering to hold it for the President so there would be one more seat available on Marine One but then I thought better of it as the Secret Service doesn’t seem to enjoy that kind of humor.
After the flight was a press conference about the viewing and what needs to be done for fire 
fighting and land management to make fire less devastating. Both President Bush and the Guv spoke and thanked enthusiastically the firefighters and each other for the efforts to work together at state and federal levels. They shook hands with every firefighter there and in a special brief ceremony recognized 3 beaming Eagle Scouts from around the state for their accomplishments.
With a wave, he jumped into one of the 3 awaiting armored-to-the-gills black Suburbans [with the 
super cool Presidential flags awaving on the front fenders] and headed down to Air Force One parked at the south end of the runway. It even looked big parked 3/4 mile away at Redding Municipal. The crowd excitement rose again from the sound as the 4 engines spooled up. As the 747 hurtled past us on the north end, [only using about 2/3 of the runway to become airborne] I doubt there was anyone not in awe of the experience just had here. I hope there were lots of kids playing outside as the President’s plane flew over their houses in east Redding, I know I felt like one.
All of that aside, other than the usual gaggle of protesters, the people of Northern California are grateful for the attention and effort paid by all the firefighting personnel, the Governor with several trips up to see what is needed and take action, and now President Bush for a historic visit to continue the efforts, not only via firefighting, but through his consistent quest for better forest management practices, to help the West to be more fire safe and for better forest health. Thank you President Bush!