Maj. Gen. Bret Daugherty saw a signal when sprawling wildfires ignited east of the Cascades just weeks after he took command of the Washington National Guard in the summer of 2012.
After years of preparing citizen soldiers for overseas deployments, it was time to turn their attention back to preparing for domestic natural disasters.
“There’s just no doubt these fires are going to continue,” he said.
The next two years proved him right. Though the Guard still sends small units of soldiers to the Middle East and Afghanistan, Daugherty’s tenure has been characterized by massive responses to the deadly Oso mudslides and another hard season of fighting wildfires last summer.
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