The Global UAS Solutions Team
Gary Baumgartner
Director of Operations, Global UAS Solutions
In 1987 Gary started his career as a Chena Hotshot crew member with the BLM, Alaska Fire Service. Gary was hired as an Alaska Smokejumper in 1988 where he served as a crew member, Parachute Rigger, Parachute Loft Manager and the Deputy Base Manager. During his career as a Smokejumper Gary was qualified as a Smokejumper Spotter, Air attack, Master Parachute Rigger, Type III Incident Commander and the lead rookie trainer. In 2012 he received the first annual National Smokejumper Association Al Dutton Leadership Award.
In 2011 Gary was promoted to BLM’s Alaska State Aviation Office as the State Aviation Manager. As the SAM, he provided management oversight and leadership for BLM’s largest state aviation program (1/3 to ½ of all BLM aviation nationwide) which included fire, natural resources, Cadastral Survey and the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) program. While serving as the SAM he created the Alaska UAS program and paved the way for agency personnel to utilize UAS on wildfires in the interagency setting. In 2016 Gary served as a member of the BLM UAS development committee that ultimately developed the BLM UAS program which developed the interagency UAS training curriculum and the UAS standards for interagency wildland fire operations. In 2019 Gary received the most prestigious recognition that can be granted to a DOI employee for career accomplishments and exceptional support of the Department’s mission, the Convocation Honor Award for Aviation Safety.
In 2019, Gary retired so that he could team up with Dave Whitmer and Gil Dustin to create the Global UAS Solutions company that offers the required training for government agency and cooperator personnel to operate UAS on interagency incidents. Gary brings a strong commitment to aviation safety and risk management as well as a stellar aviation safety record. BLM/Alaska experienced no serious accidents while Gary was managing the Alaska State Aviation program.
Gary is qualified as ICT3, STPS, DIVS, ATGS, UASP, UASM, UASL and is carded on four different UAS aircraft and the Ignis 2.0 payload. He also holds an FAA Private Pilot license, Master Rigger license and owns his own airplane.
Dave Whitmer
Chief Operating Officer, Global UAS Solutions
Dave’s career in fire began in 1985 with the Idaho Department of Lands in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. After spending the next three summers working for the US Forest Service on the Kootenai NF in northwestern Montana, Dave moved to Alaska in 1989 as a crewmember on the Chena Hotshots at Alaska Fire Service/BLM.
For the next three seasons, he worked on the Chena Hotshots and the Northstar Fire Crew at AFS. In 1992, Dave rookied with the Alaska Smokejumpers and remained there through 1999. As a smokejumper, he worked in Operations and Paracargo, and received his Senior Riggers license in the parachute loft. Dave also received his EMT license with the State of Alaska during this time, and served as an assistant spotter and squad leader.
In 2000, Dave moved out of jumping and into the Tanana Zone as the Fuels Management Specialist for AFS. In 2004, Dave accepted the Galena Zone FMO position where he had fire management and protection responsibilities for over 92 million acres in western Alaska. Dave remained there until the spring of 2008 when he accepted the Chief of Fire Operations position at AFS. From 2008 through 2019, Dave was the Chief of Fire Operations for AFS.
As the Chief of Fire Operations for AFS, Dave provided management, oversight and leadership for the Alaska Smokejumpers, two Interagency Hotshot Crews (Midnight Sun and Chena), the Northstar Fire Crew, the Fire Specialist program, the AFS Training program, the Air Attack program, the Fire Medic program, the Fire Operations Admin group, and the AFS Duty Office.
In both 2011 and 2017, Dave accepted details to the State Office/Regional Office for the BLM and USFS in Portland, Oregon where he worked as the Assistant Director - Operations, and then as the Deputy Fire Director for Region 6 USFS, and the BLM State Fire Management Officer for OR/WA. At the end of December, 2019, Dave chose to retire in order to pursue other interests.
Dave is qualified as FBAN, RXB2, ICT3, DIVS and OSC2, and has worked primarily on the Type 1 and Type 2 Alaska Incident Management Teams. He served as the chair of the S-590 Steering Committee for four years, and is the past chair of both the Alaska Operations Committee and the national BLM Fire Operations Group.
Dave was awarded the honor of Eagle Scout in 1983. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Wildlife Resources from the University of Idaho in May of 1989. And in 2009, Dave received his FAA private pilot’s license.
Although no longer working as a federal employee, wildland fire remains near and dear to Dave, and the pursuit of increasing individual and organizational awareness of risk management as it relates to firefighter safety remains a passion for him. This is one of the primary reasons that UAS training and operational use is so important to him. Dave has also been involved in several Lessons Learned Reviews, Accident Investigations and Facilitated Learning Analyses. He continues to seek opportunities in these endeavors as a means of pursuing continued growth in the field of risk management.
Gil Dustin
Partner and Director of Training, Global UAS Solutions
His fire career started with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 1992. He was employed seasonally at the Salt Lake BLM while working as a ski patroller and avalanche control professional at the Snowbird ski area.
He started as an engine crew member and scaled the qualification/position ladder to the AFMO/FMO level by 2000. During this period, he became a qualified Engine Boss, Crew Boss, Strike Team/Task Force Leader, Helitack Crewmember, Prescribed Fire Burn Boss, Division Supervisor, Incident Commander Type 3, Air Tactical Group Supervisor, and Operations Section Chief Type 2.
In 2005, he was hired by the BLM National Aviation Office as the Air Tactical Program Manager and was responsible for coordinating national air tactical training, fixed wing contracts, and interagency aviation policy/operational procedures. He also functioned on a full-time Aerial Supervision Module and documented over 4,500 aerial supervision flight hours during numerous wildland fire responses from 2000-2015.
In 2015, Gil was hired to manage the national BLM UAS program. This was an amazing opportunity to develop a federal aviation program from the ground up. He focused on interagency policy and procedure development which enabled end-users to safely employ UAS in multiple resource program applications. Examples include fire and prescribed fire, archaeology, paleontology, recreation, and GIS. His team developed training and workflows which facilitate situational awareness, aerial ignition, geospatial, photogrammetric, and cinematic applications. Gil also coordinated a Call when Need (CWN) UAS contract to support large fire response with situational awareness infrared, thermal, and geospatial products.
Gil retired in December of 2020 and immediately partnered with GUS. He has retained interagency UAS operations and training qualifications and hopes to support the global UAS community with training, operations, and system development for years to come.
Chris Mariano
Instructor and Coach, Global UAS Solutions
Born in the U.S., Chris grew up in the U.K., where he received the Gold Duke of Edinburgh award while a member of the Royal Air Force Air Training Corps, allowing him to pursue his passion for aviation and the outdoors. This also afforded him the experience to pilot single engine RAF training aircraft. He attended further education at the European Center for Aerospace Training, Macclesfield College, where he received an A.S. in Aerospace Engineering.
Chris started his fire career in 2011 with the United States Forest Service on a Type 2, On-Call Handcrew with the Lake Tahoe Basin Fire Management Unit. From there, he worked for the Tallac and Angora Peak Handcrews. In 2014, he followed his calling to become a Hotshot and was accepted to work for the Tahoe Hotshots on the Tahoe National Forest.
In 2017, an injury made him unable to participate in the upcoming fire season. Determined to still be a part of the mission, Chris identified UAS as a technology that could minimize exposure to both boots on the ground and in the air, and he began training in UAS technologies. Chris returned to Hotshotting in 2018 with the Truckee Hotshots and with him brought his passion and skills for utilizing UAS.
Chris attended interagency UAS training in 2019, and shortly thereafter became the first USFS UAS Pilot in Region 5. The following year he became carded for UAS Aerial Ignition with the Ignis 2.0 payload, UAS Module Leader, UAS Inspector Pilot, UAS Test and Evaluation Pilot and served as S-373 UAS Incident Operations and Aerial Ignition Academy cadre. Chris has worked every position within a Hotshot crew up to the Squad Leader level, while utilizing UAS to contribute solutions to fireline operations and prescribed fire. Chris left the USFS in 2022 with the intent to continue to be of service to our public, land and first responders. His mission remains to train personnel, and to utilize and further develop unmanned technologies, for use in preventing and suppressing Wildfire. He strongly believes in UAS as a tool to minimize or mitigate risk to ground and aerial firefighters, as well as expediting fireline decision making.
Charlie Brown
Instructor/Coach Global UAS Solutions
Charlie’s firefighting career began in 1978 as a crew-member with the Smokey Bear Hotshots, USFS, Region 3. In 1979, he spent a season on an engine crew (Smokey Bear Ranger District) but was back on the Smokey Bear Hotshot Crew in 1980 and remained there until excepting a position as a saw boss on the BLM, Alaska Fire Service, Chena Hotshots in 1987.
In 1988, Charlie rookied with the BLM, Alaska Smokejumpers. Some of his positions within smokejumper operations included being a Paracargo Specialist, Assistant Spotter, FLE (Fire Line Explosives) Blaster, Military Battalion Deputy Liason, Rookie Trainer and Smokejumper Operations Coordinator. He was introduced to the aerial supervision business of wildfire in 2004. While his primary position remained an Alaska Smokejumper, Charlie was signed off as a fully qualified Air Tactical Group Supervisor (Air Attack) later in the year after flying an intense fire season in Alaska and in the lower 48 states.
In 2005 he became an ATGS Instructor for the BLM Alaska Air Attack program at the same time initiating his ASM (Aerial Supervision Module) training. An ASM/”Bravo” unit is a multipurpose aerial supervision platform which performs the Leadplane role guiding federal, state, D.O.D. (MAFFS) and foreign air tankers, in low-level flight, to make safe, accurate and efficient drops. After another season of logging many mission hours in Alaska and flying ASM throughout the Great Basin, Charlie was signed off as a fully qualified Air Tactical Supervisor (ATS) within the National ASM program. ASM would turn out to be his passion. For the next several years he spent his Alaska fire season as a smokejumper and the second half of the season flying ASM throughout the lower 48 in BLM and USFS aircraft. He became an ATS Instructor in 2007 and an ATS Check Airman in 2009.
In 2011, Charlie left his jump career behind accepting a full-time ATS position with the BLM National Aviation Office. He was assigned to ASM Bravo-8 for 4 years and Bravo-6 in 2015 when he was assigned to N10S, one of two Cessna Citation Jets, to evaluate if this platform could perform the ASM/Leadplane mission. His duties at the NAO included assisting in writing policies within the ASM program, managing ATS training and evaluating different aircraft and aircraft communication and navigational systems. He instructed at several air attack academies, was an Instructor and Check Airman at the Annual Leadplane/ASM trainings and instructed annually at NAFTA (National Aerial Firefighting Training Academy). Charlie retired from the BLM National Aviation Office and wildland fire in 2016.
Riley Blaze Baumgartner
Instructor/Coach Global UAS Solutions
Riley's background emphasizes the human factors piece in aviation. She began taking on leadership and coaching opportunities in 2015 through soccer, health coaching, and personal training in Alaska. She was captain on three different teams and was coached by women's US professional player Brandi Chastain by 2016, got her personal training license by 2018, and by 2022 she earned a Bachelor's in Psychology. Riley took on any and every educator opportunity she could as therein lied her passion.
In 2018, while living in Portland, Oregon, she led the public community through educational programs that centered around utilizing challenges throughout life as opportunities to grow. Human factors in life and learning quickly became Riley's passion.
Simultaneously during this time, she dove into powerlifting and bodybuilding and by 2019 she had the ACE Fitness National Personal Trainer Certification. With this license she took on her own coaching business, her clients ranging from beginners to collegiate athletes.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Global UAS Solutions was born and Riley deemed it a great opportunity to utilize her psychology degree and coaching opportunities in the world of aviation and wildland fire. Since Riley grew up around the Alaska Smokejumpers and private aviation, you can imagine how excited she was to pursue the field similarly and be a part of the vast community that raised her. Eventually, Riley was able to return to her home state of Alaska and utilize Unmanned Aircraft Systems on several forest fires to map fire perimeters, use infrared to find hot spots and sloppovers, and provide Division leadership with applicable aerial aid to give situational awareness regarding fire containment.
While working with GUS, Riley continues to pursue Functional Medicine and health coaching, further evolving her passion and ability to help people achieve their goals and become the person they want to be.
Tim Wallace
Contracted Data and Remote Specialist, Black Mountain UAS
Tim’s career in fire began in 1997 as a fuels crewmember on the Flathead NF in Montana. He spent the new two seasons on the Flathead Hotshots before enlisting in the US Navy at the end of the 1999 fire season. He graduated BUD/S in October of 2000, Ranger School in September of 2001, and deployed to Afghanistan with Alfa Platoon, SEAL Team 8 over the winter and spring of 2002-2003. He returned to the Flathead Hotshots for the 2004 and 2005 seasons before earning a spot in the 2006 Missoula Smokejumper Rookie class. He spent the next seven seasons as a smokejumper, squadleader, and assistant spotter. When not jumping during fire season, he used the GI Bill to earn an MS in Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing with an emphasis on LiDAR and wildfire science from the University of Montana. He took a job with the USFS Missoula Fire Sciences Lab in 2012 before transitioning back to the University of Montana as an Image Analyst with the National Center for Landscape Fire Analysis in 2014.
In 2016 the University won an MREDI grant to study UAS/drones and the potential economic impact they could hold for the State of Montana. Under this study, Tim had the opportunity to work as the Drone Program Lead to help develop a UAS program from the ground up and experience nearly every aspect of UAS operations and management. In 2018 he leveraged his knowledge and experience to start Black Mountain UAS, a company focused on acquiring, processing, and analyzing research grade data and information for land managers.
He has a private pilot’s certificate with an instrument rating, Part 107 certificate, and Senior Rigger.
Loren Russell
Loren commissioned into the U.S. Air Force in 2010 as a distinguished military graduate of the University of Illinois Reserve Officer Training Corps. After completing the Intelligence Officer Basic Course and RC-135 aircrew qualification course, Loren was stationed in Okinawa, Japan as an airborne intelligence officer, where he oversaw squadron and higher headquarters aircrew training programs for 85 combat aviators as Operations Training Flight Commander. During this period, Loren served three deployments in support of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, logging over 800 combat flight hours in Afghanistan providing intelligence and targeting support to conventional and special operations ground combat units. He also flew an additional 400 hours in support of presidentially-directed reconnaissance missions in the western Pacific.
In 2015 Loren left active duty and transitioned to the Michigan Air National Guard, where he continues to serve part-time as an intelligence officer and collection manager supporting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Loren’s wildland firefighting experience encompasses time on helitack crews, wildland fire modules, as well as in fuels management. He is a qualified UAS Data Specialist, and has provided data processing support to UAS modules flying Type 3 and Type 4 aircraft, as well as larger Type 1 and Type 2 platforms operated by call-when-needed contract vendors.
Loren holds a Master of Science in International Relations from Troy State University, and is currently working toward a Master of Geographic Information Science with a focus in Remote Sensing and Geospatial Intelligence Analytics from Pennsylvania State University.