The National Smokejumper Quarterly Magazine Association January 2018 Smokejumper

The Wilderness Religion ...... 3 Pearson and the Parachute Scheme ...... 9 Oldest Surviving Smokejumper Dies...... 39 CONTENTS Message from Message from the President ...... 2 The Wilderness Religion ...... 3 The 1959 Lava Fire – It Started on the the President Shasta-Trinity and Ended Up on the Modoc ...... 5 T.V. Pearson and the Parachute Scheme ...... 9 Snapshots from the Past...... 14 comes as a surprise. Four Years ...... 16 During September I shared First Canadian Smokejumpers Smokejumpers Were a Small about an NSA Trail Project in But Brave Crew ...... 18 northern Minnesota, an area The Jumper Connection and How It Has Affected My Life...... 19 immediately adjacent to the A Louder Thump But No Real Injury ...... 21 Boundary Waters Canoe Area The Hat Makes the Man ...... 22 Wilderness. This was our 10th John Maclean on the Yarnell Hill Fire ...... 26 Rebuttal – Hotshots History of Bad Decisions ...... 27 year working in this area. A Recording Smokejumper History ...... 29 total of 19 former jumpers, Sounding Off from the editor ...... 31 Update from National Smokejumper spouses, and associates took Program Manager Roger Staats ...... 32 part in the project that worked Gathering at the Gobi June 2018 ...... 32 Remembering John “Mike” MacKinnon ...... 33 by Jim Cherry for the Gunfl int Ranger Dis- Book Review...... 34 (Missoula ’57) trict and Wilderness Canoe Off the List ...... 35 Listening To Tanner: Finding Help for a President Base, a camp that has a major Functional Gastrointestinal Disorder ...... 38 Again, in this issue I must focus on serving at-risk and An Interview With Stewart S. “Lloyd” Johnson ...... 39 report the loss of a friend and disadvantaged youth. I’m Odds and Ends ...... 45 Gathering at the Gobi June 2018 ...... 47 colleague when Chris Soren- looking forward to being able Blast from the Past...... 48 son (Assoc.), age 57, lost his to read about all of the 21 life in a one-vehicle accident projects that took place this September 10 on I-90 near past summer in eight states Cardwell, MT. The accident from the Atlantic to the Pacifi c occurred when a tire blew out and from Montana to New and the vehicle rolled. Chris Mexico. That trails report will was an associate member of come out in electronic form the NSA and wrote the col- sometime in January 2018. umn The View From Outside I live in Iowa. Not the sort The Fence for Smokejumper of area that one thinks of as SMOKEJUMPER, Issue No. 99, January 2018 magazine. His passion for the being impacted by wildfi res. ISSN 1532-6160 Smokejumper is published quarterly by: NSA made him a highly valued And yet, this past summer The National Smokejumper Association contributor to the magazine there were several times in c/o 10 Judy Lane and through his wide range Iowa when we had red sunsets Chico, CA 95926 The opinions of the writers are their own and do of contacts he could keep us and yellow-tinted days due to not necessarily refl ect those of the NSA. Permis- up-to-date on developments the smoke that was blowing in sion to reproduce Smokejumper in any manner must fi rst be obtained in writing. in the firefighting world. He from fi res in Canada and the NSA Website: http://www.smokejumpers.com also served as administrator western states. We even had Managing Editor: Chuck Sheley for the NSA Facebook page. some pollution alerts due to Associate Editor: Ed Booth We are reminded once again particulates in the air. I can Editing: K. G. Sheley of the very fragile thread that only imagine what it was like Photo Editor: Johnny Kirkley holds us to life. Life holds no for those of you who had those Illustrators: Dan Veenendaal, and Eric Rajala guarantees. We live each day fi res near where you live. I just Layout/Printing: Larry S. Jackson, Heidelberg in a tension between our vision looked at the InciWeb Inci- Graphics, www.HeidelbergGraphics.com for the future and the potential dent Information System… Front cover: Trimotor taking off from Red Horse Ranch (Courtesy Fogg Family McCall, that today could be our last. one of the links available on Idaho) I suspect that for many death www.Smokejumpers.com. As

Check the NSA website 2 www.smokejumpers.com I write this article, it’s obvious that the fire season Our nation has experienced a year of devastating is still very active even at this mid-October date. events from fire, wind, rain, and the evil that ex- As of today the fires in northern California are plodes out of the heart of man with all too great of recording 13 deaths. That number is expected to frequency. Do your best to stay safe in uncertain rise. Over 1500 structures reported destroyed. times, seek wisdom and patience, be courageous in It will be interesting to see the post-fire season the face of danger, shun hatred, and pray for peace reports on how many acres went up in smoke. and unity of spirit.

The Wilderness Religion by Earl Dodds (McCall ’49)

I recently received a copy of Earl’s book “Tales From area of almost 800,000 acres as District Ranger. The Last Of The Big Creek Rangers.” In 1958, the As a continuing part of preserving smokejumper his- Chamberlain District, Payette N.F., was combined tory by this magazine, the second of three stories from with the Big Creek District, and Earl headed up an Earl’s book follows. (Ed.)

hen I was promoted to the position NSA Members—Save of ranger on the old Chamberlain WDistrict in June 1957, most of the This Information backcountry on the eastern part of the Payette Please contact the following persons directly if National Forest was classified as the Idaho Primi- you have business or questions: tive Area. Forest Service management direction for Smokejumper magazine the Primitive Area centered upon keeping the area Articles, obits, change of address wild and free of road building and logging, but Chuck Sheley with a heavy emphasis on fire control. 530-893-0436 At that time, fire control played the major role [email protected] in the management of all the national forests in 10 Judy Ln. Chico, CA 95926 the West. This emphasis had its origin in the big Membership fires of the 1910 season that burned 3 million John McDaniel acres of prime timberlands in northern Idaho and 785-404-2847 western Montana and killed 87 people. The Forest [email protected] Service was going all out to prevent anything like 807 Eileen Ln. Salina, KS 67401-2878 this ever happening again. All else Consequently, the backcountry districts on the NSA President Payette were primarily firefighting outfits. The Jim Cherry Forest Service had small initial-attack fire crews 641-927-4428 based at Chamberlain, Cold Meadows and Big [email protected] Creek, a system of fire lookouts, and miles and 2335 300th St. Ventura, IA 50482-8502 miles of trails and telephone lines to tie everything together for communication and access purposes. Smokejumper base abbreviations: There were also three airfields on the Payette, Anchorage ...... ANC Grangeville ...... GAC Redding ...... RDD part of the Idaho Primitive Area, that were origi- Boise ...... NIFC Idaho City ...... IDC Redmond ...... RAC Cave Junction ...... CJ La Grande ...... LGD West Yellowstone WYS nally constructed and maintained for fire-control Fairbanks ...... FBX McCall ...... MYC Whitehorse Yukon YXY purposes. Fort St. John ...... YXJ Missoula ...... MSO Winthrop ...... NCSB And then there was the smokejumper program

Check the NSA website 3 www.smokejumpers.com to those existing before the time of the Forest Service arrival in the backcountry – more like the conditions that Lewis and Clark would have found if they had visited the area. We started off by getting rid of all of our motor-powered equipment. The power saws were sent out to the fire warehouse in McCall and replaced with the old hand-powered crosscut saws for trail maintenance and cutting firewood for the station. Likewise with the gasoline- powered lawn mower used to tidy up the lawns around the station. This was replaced with an old, human-powered push lawn mower like those commonly in use before the invention of a mo- torized mower. About this time, the Forest Service started a nationwide policy of “You pack it in, then pack it out” regarding trash and garbage created on a camping trip. I don’t remember whether this had anything to do with the passage of the Wilderness Earl Dodds (Courtesy E. Dodds) Act, but up until this time it had been standard practice to encourage visitors and our own Forest that started in the late 1930s just before World Service crews to bury their trash. War II, and seemed to be the answer to the prob- When we were camping away from the sta- lem of taking fast initial-attack action on remote tion, one of the first things we did was to assign fires in the backcountry that are difficult to reach someone to the task of digging a garbage pit. We by trail. By my time on the combined Chamber- encouraged the outfitters and the public to do lain and Big Creek Districts in the late 1950s, it likewise. This burying policy was a poor one in was pretty much standard practice to use jumpers that the bears, coyotes and other critters frequent- to man all new fires in the backcountry and then ly dug up the garbage and scattered trash all over retrieve them by helicopter. the woods. But we never thought that we should All this with the major objective of putting pack our trash back to the station and eventually fires out while they were small, and holding the out of the backcountry. burned acreage to a minimum. And for the most However it came about, we started on a pro- part, this management strategy worked, for in my gram of general cleanup of the new wilderness. As 25 years on the Big Creek District there was only part of this cleanup program, we went around to one large fire of consequence: the Flosse Lake Fire all the outfitter and hunter camps and packed out in 1966 that burned 5,500 acres – small potatoes all sorts of junk that had accumulated over many by today’s standards. years. When the Wilderness Bill was passed by the This project proved to be very unpopular with U.S. Congress in 1964, and the old Idaho Primi- all those involved. The crew didn’t like collecting tive Area became the cornerstone for what is now and packaging other people’s trash. The packer known as the Frank Church-River of No Return and his mules didn’t like packing out loads of old Wilderness, management philosophy changed in tin cans that rattled on the trail and tended to a big way. We were directed to conduct all of our spook the pack stock. The pilots didn’t like to fly activities in such a manner that we would have the many loads of nothing but nasty old trash. minimum impact on the land and the wilderness But the real dislike of this program was at the experience of those visiting the area. McCall Airport. The airport manager wanted the The general direction was to return conditions trash to be immediately unloaded from the air-

Check the NSA website 4 www.smokejumpers.com plane to a Forest Service truck and hauled to the we were in for a sea change in management direc- dump. He didn’t like the junk unloaded anywhere tion. Fire control was on its way out as the prin- near where it might come in contact with the cipal activity and concern of the Forest Service in public. Of course, no Big Creek personnel were the backcountry, being replaced by a wilderness usually in town to help with this, so we leaned on management philosophy – “the wilderness reli- the guys in the fire warehouse to help us out. gion,” as I called it. Like the rest of the Forest Service people in This trend has only intensified over the years; town, the warehouse guys felt that this was Big the current situation being that there is very little Creek trash and the Big Creek District should fire control in the historical sense and forest fires take care of it. Not easily done when the closest are allowed to burn freely, sometimes for weeks or district personnel were a 45-minute airplane flight even months, much like was the case in the days away. But we did the best we could and moved a before the Forest Service came to the backcoun- small mountain of trash out of the wilderness. try. The feeling is that forest fires are a part of the There were a number of old junk cars and natural scene. pickup trucks that had been abandoned along Of the many lookouts that were manned back the old mining road down Big Creek to the Snow in the days when fire control was king, only one Shoe Mine that were now inside the wilderness. – Sheepeater – is currently manned and that We didn’t really have the proper equipment for largely for communication purposes. Trail mainte- towing vehicles, but we managed to get the job nance has been greatly curtailed. If the policy is to done, using our one and only three-quarter-ton not fight fire, you don’t really need as many trails, Forest Service pickup truck. and smokejumper activity has just about become a Most of us didn’t fully realize it at the time, but thing of the past in wilderness.

The 1959 Lava Fire – It Started On The Shasta-Trinity And Ended Up On The Modoc by John Helmer (Redding ’59)

he Pulaski was the first to go. I was loath straight wooden handles were shorter than nor- to abandon it. A versatile ax-blade-and- mal, with the bottom four inches steel-clad and Tgrub-hoe combination, named after the tapered to match the receiver portion of the blade. famous forest firefighter and ranger who had The metal-on-metal contact produced a snug fit designed it some 50 years earlier, was the only tool that never loosened in use, yet disassembled with that I had used with any effect all morning. And surprising ease for the pack ride home. even then it was prone to bouncing off the ultra- The cutting edge of the blade had been filed at hard surface of the main limbs and trunks of the a 45-degree angle back at the Redding Fire Cache, Manzanita brush we were trying to remove from and was razor-sharp. Most of us carried files to the path of our small, but growing fire. keep them that way. But it was either the Pulaski or my shovel, In the hands of a skilled operator, and under and I just couldn’t part with the shovel. Not yet, the right conditions, this shovel was an impres- anyway. sive builder of fire trail, wide and fast. We learned We called them “lady shovels.” They came to use our legs and back to spare our arms and out of the fire pack in two separate pieces. The shoulders, often using our thighs, knees and shins

Check the NSA website 5 www.smokejumpers.com as pivot points. The shovel could also sling large once loomed above it. About 30,000 years ago, amounts of cool dirt and gravel directly onto the it exploded, creating a caldera and leaving many hotter portions of the fire, lowering the overall square miles of crusty lava that gradually decayed temperature, slowing its progress. over the years, providing a mineral-rich host for At the moment, however, this particular the Manzanita. shovel was just getting in my way. I was trying to This is where 60 Modoc Indians, led by Chief haul it and two seamless sack loads of jump gear Kintpuash – better known as Captain Jack – through the thickest, widest stand of Manzanita went to ground in the Battle of the Lava Beds, brush that I had ever encountered. The suddenly successfully fending off federal troops 10 times explosive Porcupine Butte Fire was right behind their number, and slaying the only flag officer – me. Maj. Gen. Edward Canby – killed in the Indian Renamed the Lava Fire after it grew and Wars. migrated from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest George Custer, we should note, had been riffed to the Modoc, the Porcupine Butte Fire had been to lieutenant colonel at the time of his death in ignited by a lightning strike late in the evening the Battle of the Little Big Horn. of Aug. 7, 1959. Dormant overnight, it was still Now, some 86 years later, four seasonal federal producing smoke the next morning, was duly employees were about to apply overwhelming reported, and soon became the destination of the force upon a miniscule enemy in the same loca- top four names on the Redding jump list, mine tion. included. We traveled in the Twin Beech, a full The results would be similar. A good, old-fash- load. ioned ass-whupping was in store for us, too. The location is easy to spot on California road You probably think that smokejumpers only maps published by H.M. Gousha. Look for a work small fires. In an ideal world, yes. “Most of thumbprint-sized cluster of cartography artwork, the fires that we go to are the fires that you’ll never labeled LAVA FLOW, running roughly north and hear about. They’re the fires that we’re going to south from just below Medicine Lake in Siskiyou catch,” said Josh Mathiesen (RDD-94), current County to just above Big Lake in Shasta County, Redding base manager, in a recently televised film near Fall River Mills. Porcupine Butte would be clip. located around four miles southwest of Deep Cra- In fact, when we first got there, our fire was ter. Our fire was somewhere in its vicinity; hence small. Teeny, tiny even. Perhaps the size of a two- the original name. car garage, and obviously going nowhere. The source of this lava was Medicine Lake it- Forrest “Buster” Moore (RDD-57) had been self, or rather the Mount Shasta-sized volcano that handed the map case, the badge of authority, and it was he who de- murred when I suggest- ed that we eat breakfast, then deal with our little fire. “Let’s get a line around it, first,” he said quietly. As it turned out, we neither controlled the fire nor ate anything. The first line was probably started a little too close to the fire and L-R: John Helmer (RDD-59), Jay Kelley (RDD-58), Bill Bowles (RDD-57), “Buster” Moore (RDD- we ran out of room. The 57). (Courtesy J. Helmer) second line was started

Check the NSA website 6 www.smokejumpers.com a respectful distance away, but we still ran out of sacks full of jump gear through the Manzanita and room. carry the shovel, too. Getting rid of the Pulaski The difference was that the entire Manzanita hadn’t helped that much. The fire was growing canopy began to burn. hotter, noisier and, yes, closer. It wasn’t moving When we first arrived, and throughout the very fast, but it was moving faster than I was at night before, flames had been confined to the the moment. All things are relative. ground cover. The resulting heat was scorching So, I tossed the shovel. There were plenty more the Manzanita leaves above, changing their color where this one came from, and our fire had grown from green to brown, but not igniting them. to the point where one shovel couldn’t have made There was no single catalyst for what hap- a difference. A bulldozer or two, maybe; not a pened next. A gradual increase in the ambient shovel. temperature as dawn evolved into mid-morning, Now I had no tools at all, but was no lon- the evaporation of moisture remaining from the ger immobilized. I proceeded to force my way previous afternoon’s thunderstorm, and a modest through the Manzanita, gradually increasing the increase in the nascent breeze combined to dra- space between me and the fire, which by this time matically change everything. was huffing and puffing in earnest. There was a snap, a crackle and, yes, a pop, as But it was slow going and exhausting. Later, one at first, then a dozen elevated leaves caught when I discussed the difficulty and lack of speed fire, then an entire branch. We watched it happen- with Jay Kelley (RDD-58), he agreed with me: ing, but were unable to prevent it. There was no “You’re right, John. It slowed me down to about cool dirt or gravel to throw on it. The Manzanita 45 miles per hour!” was growing out of a pile of lava boulders. At length the four of us gathered at a large We had barely begun our third line when we outcropping of lava rock, at least 30 yards wide. began to worry about our jump gear. The still- We briefly considered staying put and letting the slowly drifting breeze had reversed direction, and fire go around us. now smoke was streaming toward our jump spot, But we had also noticed a small stand of ma- instead of away from it. We decided to get our ture timber off to our left. It was fairly close to the equipment out of harm’s way. main fire, which by now was heading in all direc- This explains how I found myself stuck in a tions, and was not that close to us, but there was vast, soon-to-be-blazing Manzanita field with my no Manzanita in it. If we could reach the clearing, two heavy, seamless sacks and this not-yet-used we would have room to run. shovel. We decided to make a run for it, and did so, One sack held my 28-foot FS-2 candy-stripe eventually putting some meaningful distance main parachute, hastily gathered and stuffed in- between the fire and us. side along with several pounds of Manzanita twigs But first we had to find a safe place to cache and leaves. The other contained my reserve chute, the jump gear that we had so laboriously rescued. parachute harness, helmet with the distinctive We took advantage of a large, shallow depres- wire mesh face mask, jump jacket and jump pants, sion in the middle of the open space, and further the leg pocket of which held 150 feet of letdown excavated it into a large pit, into which we threw line. the seamless sack-loads of gear. Then we covered Also two signal streamers, normally to be laid everything with a thick layer of lava rock. The out as double L’s (LL), letting the spotter and pilot rocks were light and bubbly and the work went know that all jumpers had landed safely, and that quickly. Then off we went. it was OK to leave. Later, when it had cooled down, we revisited Buster had laid out his double L’s about three our rock pile and discovered, to our complete hours earlier, shortly after we had arrived. All was astonishment and utter dismay, that several thou- serene then. Now all four of us were having seri- sand dollars’ worth of parachutes, reserves, harness ous problems. and letdown lines were no longer there! Gone! My problem was that I couldn’t drag the two Burnt up! A few pockets of molten nylon were

Check the NSA website 7 www.smokejumpers.com still putting out fl ames and black smoke; a buckle steep, rugged terrain”? here and there; nothing else! Rugged? Yes. Steep? No. Not here. But nothing What about my helmet? My jump suit? I had can be as frustrating as not knowing where you are spent the previous two months wearing them ev- in relation to the truck. Especially the crew boss, ery day; rookie training plus a half dozen or so fi re the guy with a map and compass, whose every jumps. Yes, they were still government property, false move is duplicated a dozen times by the rest but I had literally invested large measures of sweat of the crew. equity in them. Their loss was a personal one, The solution was to equip one member of the truly mourned. fi re crew with a gigantic spool of ordinary cotton To this day I cannot explain how our stuff string mounted on a pack board. His sole job was caught fi re. On the other hand, I’m glad we to tie on to the truck, play out the string, keep up weren’t still there when it happened. This was with the rest of the crew, and provide a means to before the widespread use of fi re shelters. literally retrace your steps. According to Bill Bowles (RDD-57), the only By this time there were half a dozen string lines piece of gear that didn’t burn up was a paper to choose from, but they were all coming from sleeping bag that he found where we unloaded the the same general direction. No jumper has ever fi re packs. A tiny fi eld mouse had crawled inside had an easier pack out. We had nothing to carry to escape the heat. He let it be. except the radio and no hills to climb. By this time it was clear to everyone within We paused from time to time, looking over our 100 miles of us that things were not going well. shoulders at the growing destruction behind us, The Beech returned and made several low passes. marveling at the cloud of smoke it produced. Obviously, they were worried about us. This The Lava Fire was ultimately controlled at would have been a good time to lay out another 13,800 acres by a total of 1,170 fi re fi ghters using set of double L’s, and reassure everyone that we 15 bulldozers and an equal number of pumper were OK, but our signal fl ags, like everything else, trucks. The total cost, including lost timber val- had burnt up. ues, was $9,570,300. The Beech made three more runs, dropping In the years that followed, I’ve worked trails a large container of water which streamered in, with Bill and met with Buster at reunions and narrowly missing Bill; an industrial-sized fi rst- elsewhere. All three of us are still looking for Jay. aid kit, which was promptly sucked directly into The subject of our conversations is always the the fi re; and a radio, which nearly met the same same. Buster told me recently that the smoke was fate. so concentrated in an enormous column that a The ground crews had arrived, and it was time giant thunderhead was formed, briefl y producing to leave. Buster apologized to the district ranger, rainfall. and turned the charred remnants of the fi rst aid “Buster, the Lava Fire had to be the biggest kit over to him, explaining that it contained De- story of the season. It started on the Shasta-Trinity merol. We were told to follow one of several string and ended up on the Modoc!” lines back to a fi re road, and transportation back “Nope,” he replied, “not even close. Noth- to Redding. ing can top the 1959 Redding rookie party,” he String lines? Yes, ground crews entering the said. “Five carloads of brave jumpers set out for Modoc Plateau area face a risk seldom encoun- the Clear Creek Crossing on the Igo-Ono Road. tered elsewhere: getting lost. Three made it back! Do you remember that?” Blame it on the topography of this area. There “ ’Deed I do, Buster.” are no ridgelines to follow, no drainages to cross, and no landmarks to keep in sight. The world, or In the in the upcoming April 2018 issue of Smoke- at least this part of it, is fl at. jumper, “The 1959 Redding Rookie Party: Five Car- How many times have you heard or read loads Of Brave Jumpers Set Out For The Clear Creek news accounts of uncontrolled wildland fi res that Crossing. Three make it back.” blame “high winds, extreme temperatures and

Check the NSA website 8 www.smokejumpers.com T.V. Pearson And The Parachute Scheme by Richard Elsom

This article was originally published at https://text- Pearson likely would have made more drops, message.blogs.archives.gov/ Aug. 29, 2017. Richard but an inspector from the Airways Division of Elsom is an Archives Technician at the National the Department of Commerce halted his work in Archives at Denver. early April 1935 and required that Pearson obtain Original letters are condensed for space. These let- the proper permit in order to conduct additional ters are transcribed from original USFS documents drops. In the letter below, Pearson had to plainly that are housed at the National Archives in Denver describe what exactly his tests entailed in order to within the series: Historical Files, 1901-1962 (NAID secure the permit. 23944420). Please contact [email protected] for more information. The following is a brief of the letter from T.V. Pearson (4/9/35) to “The Forester” in Washington D.C. n the West, wildland fire is a regular threat to Communications referred to in this article will be populated spaces as well as the rugged back- shortened to save space (Ed.): Icountry found in forests and wilderness areas. In an effort to improve response time on fires in In conversation with the Dept. of Commerce remote areas, the U.S. Forest Service began to ex- at Salt Lake City, we were advised to state periment in 1939 with dropping firefighters from more specifically the items for which we aircraft. These early parachute tests conducted need (a) permit. They are: in Washington state were so successful that they 1. Desire to deposit men from an airplane spawned a new type of wildland firefighter that to the ground using (an) old exhibition still serves today – the smokejumper. type parachute. However, 1939 was not the first time the 2. Same using the modern approved type Forest Service tested the idea of dropping firefight- of parachute. ers by parachute. The History of Smokejumping, 3. Desire to do above using only one para- produced by Region 1 of the Forest Service in chute. In our experiments the wearing 1976, states that T.V. Pearson “proposed and of extra chutes constitutes a handicap. initiated” the first parachute tests in 1934 in the Intermountain Region (also known as Region 4), While waiting for approval, Person wrote a but the project stalled due to a belief it was too memo May 13, 1935, explaining how dropping risky.1 firefighters from the air would greatly reduce the At the National Archives at Denver, we have time it takes to arrive at a fire and would thus lim- documents relating to this first test in Record it the size and destructive force of a given fire. He Group 95: Records of the Forest Service, within also details his experiments and notes his desire the series Historical Files, 1901-1962 (NAID to remain involved with the project if the Forest 23944420). Service decided to conduct additional tests. While Pearson may have proposed parachute Unfortunately, Pearson could secure no con- tests in 1934, there is no mention of it among verts to his method outside of Region 4 other the files of that year. However, there is evidence than his partner in the experiments, the civilian of Pearson’s parachute experiments beginning in parachutist Bruce. 1935. These tests were fairly extensive with a to- tal of 30 successful parachute drops, 28 using a This communication is very long - condensed to meet 155-pound iron weight and two manned drops by space limits. Pearson writes to the Regional Forester professional parachutist J.B. Bruce. (Ed.):

Check the NSA website 9 www.smokejumpers.com Fires in central Idaho have cost us more hankering to assume the responsibility for men than $525,000 per season over the last six risking their lives in any such undertaking.” years – delayed arrival of fi refi ghters has Consequently, Pearson’s promising results went been responsible in part for size and cost nowhere. – airplane-parachute method presented for your consideration – man can be dropped Condensed letter (7/10/35) to Earl Loveridge (USFS/ accurately from elevations down to 100 feet DC Offi ce) from Evan Kelly: – practical to deliver men to high percentage of back country fi res – 60 fi res manned by Enclosed is letter from JB Bruce (parachut- airplane out of McCall would cost $2,250 – ist) – Bruce scheme of dropping men from 1934 over $86,000 spent on 60 fi res – we airplanes for fi refi ghting - Pearson (T.V.) of have done 28 deliveries of iron weight (155 Region Four was a party to the scheme – lbs.) and two deliveries of a man at eleva- I’m willing to take a chance on most any kind tions from 150 to 450 feet – a 24-foot chute of proposition that promises better action on was used – diffi culties in form of trees and fi res – hesitant to go into thing that Bruce rough topography can be mastered. proposes – all parachute jumpers are more or less crazy – just a little bit unbalanced, Bruce (civilian parachutist) wrote a letter to Forest otherwise they wouldn’t be engaged in such Service headquarters asking to travel to Washington, a hazardous undertaking – we wouldn’t have D.C., and present the case for continuing the project, any great need for dropping men from the but his request was denied. In answer to JB Bruce’s let- air – don’t want to be responsible for a lot ter, Earl Loveridge (USFS/DC) responds in telegram: of compensation – Pearson’s design (para- chute) has merit but wouldn’t rescue man JB Bruce wires suggesting he come to from hanging on a snag or tree top – to make Washington outline parachute scheme. things practicable we would have to have a Please advise him nothing gained thereby trained bunch of parachute jumpers who are but that we hope establish fi re equipment skilled fi refi ghters – can use available mon- laboratory Spokane and are referring your ey more productively – if Washington Offi ce report there for further consideration. wishes to carry on further experimentation, assign it to other quarters. The lack of support for the project in 1935 was due in part to the early nature of parachuting, but The parachute project remained dormant until more importantly, Pearson failed to convince any- 1939 after “strong sentiment [had] grown up for one from Region 1, Region 5, or Region 6 of the experimentation with dropping of fi remen from importance of his work. aircraft with man parachutes,” according to Roy With the seasonal fi re danger in Region 4 Headley, chief of the Division of Fire Control largely confi ned to its portion of central Idaho, at Forest Service headquarters. Headley’s July 6, their ideas about fi re policy were overruled by the 1939, letter to the Regional Forester of Region major fi re players of Regions 1, 5, and 6 with their 6 confi rms that Region 4 lacked infl uence on extensive fi re-danger areas in Montana, California, fi re matters when he states that he did not take Washington and Oregon. the early parachute experiments seriously, but if In a July 19, 1935, letter to Earl Loveridge “a group of men in any of the major fi re regions at Forest Service headquarters in Washington, comes to believe the idea worth experimenting D.C., Evan Kelley, Regional Forester for Region with, I am quite ready to admit that I may have 1, writes that he has heard from experienced fl iers been wrong before.” that “all parachute jumpers are more or less crazy” C.N. Woods, regional forester for Region 4, and parachuting men into mountainous terrain writes Region 6 on Sept. 5, 1939, and forwards would be far too risky. the 1935 memo from Pearson in which he details “The point of my letter is that I have no his experiments, but Woods notes that additional

Check the NSA website 10 www.smokejumpers.com Historic Photo: Frank Derry instructing rookie jumper let- Historic Photo: August 1941 jumpers preparing for tower down training, August 1941.(Courtesy National Archives) training. (Courtesy National Archives) information on the tests is missing and likely moved the regional office from direct control dur- stayed with Pearson when he left the region. ing a fire and gave district rangers the authority to Despite being responsible for carrying out the orchestrate the response as they saw fit. first manned parachute tests in the Forest Service Pearson touted the benefits of this new system and paving the way for future work in the field, and, once it was established on all Region 4 for- Pearson receives little more than a brief mention ests, stated it improved response time on fires and in the overall history of smokejumping. Who was reduced related correspondence to the regional of- Pearson, and why was he the one to give the idea fice by 98 percent. of parachuting firefighters a serious test while Pearson next appears in 1932 in correspon- others dismissed the “scheme” as the exclusive do- dence between him and the Goodyear-Zeppelin main of barnstormers and crackpots? Corporation. Pearson writes to inquire about the Pearson, as a member of the regional staff possibility of using a Goodyear zeppelin to trans- in Ogden, Utah, in the Operation section, first port men and equipment into the backcountry appears in our records in Denver among the to fight fire. In a very candid response, Goodyear 1922 Administrative Bulletins within the series cautions Pearson against the use of zeppelins and Historical Files, 1901-1962 (NAID 23944420). notes that they cannot fly in strong winds, are un- In these bulletins, Pearson shows himself to be able to carry more than 1,200 total pounds of per- forward thinking with a short article encouraging sonnel and equipment – further reduced if operat- forest rangers to continue to learn and try new ing at the high elevations of the Intermountain things on the job. He also suggests that supervi- Region – and are rather expensive at $75,000 per sors back at the office should spend time with zeppelin. their subordinate rangers in the field and see what Despite the zeppelin dead end, Pearson contin- they can do to work together and be a more ef- ued to work on ways to improve transportation of ficient team. firefighters and their equipment. He modified the Pearson oversaw the establishment in June standard parachutes he had access to and added a 1922 of a centralized telephone-dispatch system rubber tube running inside the outer edge that he on the Boise National Forest that connected the would inflate after he packed the parachute into a district ranger directly to his lookout posts and bag or metal case. firefighting assets. Centralized dispatch also re- This now-inflated tube ensured that the para-

Check the NSA website 11 www.smokejumpers.com One fi nal question we can tackle is what Pearson’s full name was. In our records, he is only ever referred to as “T.V. Pearson,” “TVP” or simply “Pearson.” The July 2015 edition of Smokejumper magazine includes an article on T.V. Pearson that mentions his fi rst name is Thomas.2 From there, a quick search on ancestry.com turns up Pearson’s draft card from World War I and we meet Thomas Virgil Pearson, Forest Service inno- vator and pioneer.3

Endnotes 1. Forest Service Region 1, History of Smokejump- ing, 1976. 2. Roland M. Stoleson, “As 75th Anniversary Ap- proaches, We Should Remember These Smoke- jumping Trailblazers,” Smokejumper, July 2015. 3. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]; Original data: United States, Selective Service System. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918. Sources Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Historic Photo: July 1956 tree climbing training Cave Junc- Administration. Microfi lm roll M1509. tion. (Courtesy National Archives) All other information, images, and documents come from original records at the National Archives at Denver within the series, Historical Files, 1901- chute opened immediately upon release from its 1962 (NAID 23944420), Record Group 95: case and allowed for accurate drops as low as 100 Records of the Forest Service. feet from the ground. It was with this modifi ed If you have any questions regarding this article or parachute, among others, that he conducted his smokejumping records at the National Archives, experiments in 1935. please email [email protected]. Our last glimpse of Pearson in our parachuting records comes in a letter dated Oct. 22, 1943, in which he asks for smokejumper stats from Region 4 while serving as acting chief of the Division of The Elusive JB Bruce Fire Control at Forest Service headquarters. The by Richard Elsom records indicate Pearson left the regional offi ce I was looking through some records relating to for Washington, D.C. at some point between his Region 4 fire training for district rangers from parachute tests of 1935 and the revival of the pro- 1940 and found something interesting. Listed gram in 1939, but did he continue to advocate for under attendees was a JB Bruce from the Caribou the development of aerial fi refi ghters after leaving National Forest, so I immediately got to work dig- Region 4? ging through Caribou NF records to fi nd out if it Based on his fi rsthand experience and his re- was JB Bruce the parachutist. cord of forward thinking, it is likely that he con- Unfortunately, this wasn’t our JB Bruce as tinued his efforts upon arrival at his new job in Pearson’s records indicate he worked with John B. the Division of Fire Control, but that is a mystery Bruce and this ranger was James B. Bruce. Also, for another time. having been born in 1891, he would have been 44

Check the NSA website 12 www.smokejumpers.com in 1935, not a likely candidate for daredevil para- know from Forest Service records that Thomas chute work. began working in the Operation Division of the I continued the search on Google and ancestry. Intermountain Regional Office in Ogden as early com and came across several stories in the Ogden as 1922. Standard newspaper that mentioned a professional By 1930 his marriage has apparently ended as parachutist named Buddy Bruce out of Pocatello, he does not appear in the census of that year, but ID. An April 20, 1931, story puts his age at 27, his wife, Elsie, shows up in Utah with the children so he would have been about 31 during Pearson’s and is listed as divorced. Sometime between 1935 tests. An April 21, 1935, story mentions he has and 1940, Thomas relocated to Washington D.C. been parachute jumping for more than 10 years and began working in Forest Service Headquarters and has 215 jumps to his name. The paper identi- in the Division of Fire Control. The 1940 census fies him as among the top five parachutists in the lists his income as $3,800, he has three years of country and notes that he is a movie daredevil, college education and is married to 28 year old having performed stunt work in the films Hell’s Clara H Pearson who is employed as a stenogra- Angels, Wings, and Dawn Patrol. pher typist. The paper from Nov 8, 1935, seals the deal The last record of Thomas is his draft card with a story on Buddy Bruce’s work with TV from the 1942 “Old Man’s Draft” in which he Pearson on the Forest Service parachute experi- is 53 years old, living in Springfield, Virginia, ments. with his wife Clara, and is still employed at the Division of Fire Control in DC. He is 5’10”, 150 pounds, with blue eyes and gray hair. His whereabouts after 1942 are unknown, but he died Biographical Details on June 30, 1978, and is buried at Snowflake Cemetery in Snowflake, Arizona. of T.V. Pearson JB Bruce is more difficult to track as he went by the name “Buddy” and his birth name is un- and J.B. Bruce clear. Through the Ogden Standard Examiner of by Richard Elsom April 20, 1931, we learn that 27-year-old Buddy Thomas Virgil Pearson was born in Utah in broke two ribs during an “airplane rodeo” after 1889 to Henry Pearson, a carpenter and Swedish jumping from 2,500 feet with a loose parachute national who immigrated to the US in 1862, and harness. This puts his date of birth around 1904 Sarah Pearson, a schoolteacher and native of Utah and subsequent issues of the paper identify his whose father was born in Kentucky and mother hometown as Pocatello, Idaho. born in Tennessee. In 1900, twelve-year-old The April 21, 1935, issue of the Ogden Thomas is living with his parents, three brothers, Standard Examiner features a faded photo of and one sister in Draper, Utah. Buddy and mentions that he is a nationally In 1910, Thomas is living in a boarding house known movie daredevil and parachute jumper in Bannock, Idaho, and is employed as a railroad who has completed 215 jumps since 1925. The fines keeper. Also in 1910, he marries Elsie Dilts paper identifies Buddy as among the top five lead- and the couple has their first child, Verlin Louise ing experts in the country on parachute jumping, Pearson, on March 27, 1913. and he has appeared in “moving pictures” such as On his WWI draft card from 1917, Thomas Wings, Hell’s Angels, and The Dawn Patrol. is employed as a forest officer and living in Afton, Our last glimpse of Buddy comes in the Wyoming, with his wife and two children. By November 8, 1935 issue of the Ogden Standard 1918, Thomas is back in Idaho serving as Deputy Examiner in an article about the parachute tests Forest Supervisor on the Weiser National Forest, with TV Pearson that mentions that Buddy made which is now known as the Payette National the final two drops after several dummy drops. Forest. Where Buddy ends up after 1935 is currently a The census trail beings to go cold here, but we mystery.

Check the NSA website 13 www.smokejumpers.com Snapshots from the Past

Salmon River on the Nez Perce were giving us hell on the Forest, Idaho. ground also gave the spotters Our new man managed to hell in the air. After a num- break his reserve open sitting ber of wild streamers drops, on the deck of that AT-11 the Doug fl ew over at treetop Twin Beech – we didn’t use level, dumped out six fi re seats in any aircraft back then packs and left for home. – so he was going back home. Arky and I were sick with Jim and I jumped at 1:15 p.m. disappointment, but we kept and by 1:45 we were both on hammering away on that the fi re. damned fi re the rest of the by Jeff R. Davis We’d jumped on a ridge afternoon and well into the (Missoula ’57) top, a half-mile above the fi re, midnight hours of that night. The Jump On Bull Creek where both of us had “treed By then we were exhausted, It was the fi re season of 1961, up” in the 70-foot Douglas fi r and the fi re seemed to be lay- the best I’d seen in years. Mon- timber. ing down somewhat, with the tana and Idaho were on fire, The fi re was a royal bitch. cooling effects of the Benton- with the hopes that Oregon, Sixteen jumpers couldn’t have ite drops and the night’s cold Washington and California controlled that blaze without air. would soon follow suit. time spent working around the We decided to take a break I’d made my fi rst fi re jump clock for several days. It was and grab some z’s while we June 5, and with a break for burning hot and had already could. The problem was to 24 days when I was training covered at least fi ve acres, and fi nd a safe place to bed down; new men, I’d been at it ever it was burning in the worst the terrain was straight up and since. It was now September. possible terrain. The Salmon down in all directions. I fi nally I’d made nine fi re jumps so far, River country is as steep as a found an old snag close to spotted 13 loads of new men, cow’s face and the Bull Creek the fi re where the ground was 27-seven loads of jumpers on Fire was no exception. at least level enough I could fi res, and 33 loads of cargo for Jim “Arky” Elms and I curl myself around it on the fi res all over the northwest. At began fl ailing away at the fi re. uphill side. I fell asleep almost one point I fl ew 30 consecu- Two district men arrived at 3 instantly. tive days. p.m., both exhausted from the Arky looked around for a I thought the record- steep climb, and after helping suitable place to sleep, fi nally breaking season was over, but themselves to our C-rations, fi nding a spot about fi fty yards on Sept. 19 we got a fi re call they disappeared back down from me, where a rock out- at 11:30 a.m. for four jumpers the ridge, never to be seen cropping had pounded a fl at on the Salmon River. There again. space underneath it. Jim fell were only three of us left in We received slurry drops asleep almost as fast as I did, camp. Jim Elms (GAC-59), a from several TMBs from 4 but he must have been worried new man, and I went airborne p.m. until 6:45 p.m. A DC-3 about those rocks hanging over at 12:05 p.m. for the Bull appeared over the fi re at 5 his head before he closed his Creek Fire on a little drain- p.m. with 16 troops back from eyes. age which emptied into the other fi res. But the winds that I knew none of this, of

Check the NSA website 14 www.smokejumpers.com course, but at first light I was radio. (The district guys had yelling into that defunct radio, awakened by a terrible racket left us their air net/ground net telling those district guys over at Jim’s bed site. He was radio.) We thought we’d easily they’d better, by God, bring still asleep, but reared straight be done with this work and in some cigarettes when they up in his sleeping bag, beat- back on the fire to finish mop- came to pick us up, etc. etc. ing his arms against his legs, ping it up by noon. The chopper arrived at and hollering, “Mah laigs, But we were trapped on 2 p.m., but it remained in a mah laigs – ah cain’t find mah top in a blizzard. I’d had it. hover 10 feet above the pad. laigs!” Damned ground-pounders I couldn’t figure out why. We It seems he had drifted off had abandoned us, the had cut a clean spot, and he into an uneasy sleep, worried damned radio had quit work- should have flown right in. about that rock outcropping, ing, we’d busted our butts, all I looked up at the pilot; he and like me, had lain as still alone, and actually put a halt was watching me like a hawk. as possible so he wouldn’t roll to the fire, and now we were Finally, from his hover, he slid down the hill. His legs went stuck in a snowstorm with no open a side window and threw numb for lack of circulation, protection at all. Even worse, out a carton of cigarettes. My and when he reared up in the I’d been out of cigarettes now radio had been transmitting all early morning, he was still for nearly two days and I was along; it just wasn’t receiving! dreaming that the rocks had grouchy as hell. After he saw me grab a fallen and crushed both legs. I told Jim I was going to cigarette and suck it halfway When he couldn’t feel them, as he groggily reared up, he was certain his legs were crushed. We’d busted our butts, all alone, and actually I laughed like hell. For long, loud minutes, the hills put a halt to the fire, and now we were stuck were filled with the cry, “Mah in a snowstorm with no protection at all. laigs, mah laigs – ah cain’t find mah laigs!” The morning of Sept. 21 fix us a shelter and hole up down, he finally landed and dawned cloudy and cold. Since for the duration. He asked me off we flew, for an overnight the fire was still lying quiet, how I planned to do that, and at Dixie Ranger Station, to we decided to climb back to I pulled one of our reserves, Grangeville and finally back to the jump spot and retrieve spread it out in a circle, and Missoula by 8 p.m. our gear. A storm was brew- weighted the skirt down with I was paid for 49 and a half ing, and by 8 o’clock when rocks and logs, stuck another hours overtime on the Bull we climbed back to pull our limb we’d cut up into the apex, Creek Fire. I got about $6 ’chutes from the timber, it was and bingo! We had us a tepee an hour then, straight time, already too late. worthy of a Nez Perce Indian. overtime, no hazard duty pay It began to blow a blizzard. We sat inside there for hours – just six bucks an hour for the It took us two hours to pull around a blazing fire, hap- fifty hours OT. My pay for the those parachutes out of the pily destroying $300 worth of Bull Creek Fire came to about timber – they were frozen stiff government property. We were $300, plus the regular wages like bed sheets. past caring. I would have earned sitting We’d gone up there with no It got worse, a lot worse. around the loft drinking cof- chow or camping gear, figuring We had to cut another helispot fee. on a quick retrieval, cutting a below the fire on Sept. 22. We It wasn’t the first time I chopper spot for a helicopter were exhausted and hungry. I realized I loved being a smoke- to remove our jump gear per was out of smokes, and I vent- jumper for something other instructions we’d received by ed my anger for several days by than money.

Check the NSA website 15 www.smokejumpers.com Four Years by Jim Hickman (Missoula ’52)

our years – from the first training jump to the first fire jump. At the end of May 1952, Fmy family came to Oklahoma Baptist Uni- versity to see me graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Physical Chemistry. I returned home with them to La Junta, Colo., and two days later was on a bus to Missoula, Montana. Arrived at Missoula in middle of night with several other recruits, and immediately drove to the Nine Mile Training Center. Next morning we rode back to Missoula to get new “White” boots. I was flat broke, so $28 came out of my first pay- check. Many of you reading this know the story of the next few weeks. I don’t remember the exact dates, but we finished our seven training jumps and were working on project, waiting for our first fire jump, when I had a call from home. A friend on the draft board in La Junta told my folks my selective service number was coming up in two weeks. I had been deferred while going to school. It L-R: T.J. Thompson, Jim Hickman 1956 (Courtesy J. Hick- so happened during my last spring in school the man) U.S. Navy sent a recruiting team to the university, and I had taken and passed the entrance exam for “frogman” training at Coronado. The next three Navy OCS. years were interesting, and I had lots of time to On hearing what the draft board was about to contemplate the future. do, I called the Navy. Their response was to send I thought of the high school and college years me orders to report to Denver for a pre-induction I worked in the woods in Wyoming and Colorado physical. Upon passing that, I received orders to as a logger, and I always remembered I didn’t get report to Newport, R.I. I had missed my opportu- a “fire jump” at Missoula. Rather than face three nity for a fire jump and was started on a different years of shore duty in a peacetime Navy, I enrolled path. at Utah State University Forestry School on the Upon getting my Navy commission in De- GI Bill, and started school January 1956. cember 1952, I received orders to Beach Jumper I also called Fred Brauer (MSO-41) at the Unit One, Naval Amphibious Base, Coronado. smokejumper base in Missoula, explained the This turned out to be a World War II pre-inva- situation, and was back on the roster for 1956 fire sion unit being re-commissioned. I assumed the season. I also obtained my private pilot’s license word “smokejumper” in my file triggered my on the GI Bill in 1956. orders. After the last day of Utah State University BJU-ONE required two underwater demoli- Forestry Summer School at Logan, Utah, I tion officers, and I immediately volunteered for headed my car toward Missoula, and that night the training and spent the next three months in checked in at the new facility at Missoula. I do

Check the NSA website 16 www.smokejumpers.com L: Jim Hickman UDT Training 1953 Jim Hickman (far left) and UDT crew USS Perch 1954 (Courtesy J. Hickman) (Courtesy J. Hickman) not remember the exact date. During the night Ranger District of the Bitterroot National Forest. there was a fire call, and I went with the other Eight of us jumped on a high-country fire and jumpers as a ground pounder. We got back Sun- were there several days. Al Cramer (MSO-43) was day night. the overhead in charge. I checked in at the office Monday morning and The rains came and it was time to return to immediately caused some confusion, as I already school. In the meantime I talked at some length had fire time before being on the smokejumper with Fred Brauer, telling him of my desire to roll. My refresher training started that day, and I work full-time for the Forest Service. The last day remember one of the overhead being angry at the of work he called me to the office to meet Roy way I was allowed to start. “Corky” Korkalo, chief dispatcher and coordina- Fred Brauer straightened it out and all went tor for the Lolo National Forest. well. We visited for a while, and when he left I had On my next to last refresher jump, we were been hired as the seasonal dispatcher and aerial out early, and as soon as we landed were told to observer for the ’57 fire season on the Lolo N.F., hurry, load up and go back to base, grab a fresh along with Don Stevenson (MSO-55). In the canopy, and back in the plane for a second jump. spring of ’58, when school was out, I received my As soon as we finished, we continued to hurry, permanent appointment to the USFS and started grabbed our gear, loaded in the Doug and flew to at the Plains Ranger District, Lolo National For- Redding. est. Several of us loaded in the Lodestar at Redding There were many more wonderful years, and I early the next morning. T.J. Thompson (MSO- retired in January 1993 as the director of Aviation 55) and I jumped on a smoke on a high ridge in and Fire Management, Region 3, in Albuquerque, plain sight of Mt. Shasta. It took four years, but N.M. it fulfilled a dream and was just as wonderful as I One thing is always outstanding in my memo- had imagined it would be. ries. Through all those years, the fellow smoke- We had a good summer, though part of it we jumpers – one of them my brother, Rich Hilder- spent in the Billings area where about twenty of brand (MSO-66) – the Forest Service overhead, us flew in on a terrific fire bust, but operated from and the many different Forest Service acquain- ground equipment instead of jumping. There tances were wonderful people. I thank God for the were too many fires too close together. opportunity and blessings I received to live and My last fire that summer was on the Sula work with them.

Check the NSA website 17 www.smokejumpers.com First Canadian Smokejumpers Smokejumpers Were A Small But Brave Crew by Dorothy Turcotte

(Copyright 2017, Grimsby Lin- need, as well as enough food to is a very precise procedure. coln News of Thorold, Ontario, last several days. Once the fire When there is a big fire, spot- Canada.) was out, they would have to ter planes circle the area with hike to a location on a lake or trained spotters who send here are still many river where a floatplane could information to aerial crews pieces to be found in land and pick them up. This about where and when to drop Tthe Canadian history might be several miles from their loads of water. The water jigsaw puzzle. In view of the the fire site. bombers are large planes with recent outbreaks of wildfires in The whole process was a a crew of only two. British Columbia, and else- very strenuous one, so these The planes skim over the where, this is the right time to men had to be in excellent surface of a local lake, picking tell the story of Canada’s first physical condition. Regular up huge loads of water that is smokejumpers, the original exercise was an important part then dropped on the fire at the 125 men who worked in of their training. designated location. Some- Saskatchewan jumping from In 2014, Hope Pedersen, times fire retardant is added to planes to put out forest fires. wife of smokejumper Olaf the water to help keep the fire The Saskatchewan Fire “Swede” Pedersen, decided to in check. Jumpers, as they were known, write a book so that the his- Aerial firefighters played a began their mission in 1947 tory of the early smokejumpers large part in controlling large and continued until 1967 wouldn’t be lost or forgot- fires near Kelowna and Fort when the group disbanded. ten. There had been previ- McMurray, British Columbia. During that time period, ous attempts to write about Most summers, they put out these men were an important this group of brave men, but dozens of smaller fires that element in the fighting of forest somehow they had fallen by threaten remote towns and vil- fires. The water bomber hadn’t the wayside. lages. However, when there is yet appeared on the scene. When helicopters and little snow to leave moisture in Well-trained as firefighters water bombers came into ex- the ground and too much rain and as parachutists, the jump- istence, it was considered that in the spring, as happened this ers would be flown to an area smokejumpers were no longer year, firefighters are often left where a small forest fire had needed. However, there are “on standby” waiting for the been started, usually by light- still many in North America, order to take off. ning strike, and would jump to including Canada. These In Southern Ontario we the site where they would have intrepid men are put to work, seldom think of forest fires and to work hard on the ground to usually in remote and moun- the effort that goes into keep- extinguish the fire. tainous areas such as British ing towns and villages, even This was not as easy as it Columbia. Most of us rarely cities, safe. The story of the first may sound. For one thing, hear about them and the work aerial firefighters, the Saskatch- they would have to jump with they do. ewan Fire Jumpers, is an all the equipment they would Modern aerial firefighting important part of our history.

Check the NSA website 18 www.smokejumpers.com The Jumper Connection And How It Has Affected My Life by John P. Doran (North Cascades ’72)

irst, a brief recap on my becoming a smoke- tique played its hand. I found myself standing in jumper. Growing up in Twisp, Wash. – a front of the main office of the Forestry Commission Fmere five miles from the smokejumper base, of New South Wales in Sydney, and decided to go in and having many neighbors and friends who were and inquire about work. I was sent to talk with Dick jumpers – gave me an insight into the job, good and Leck, the fire commissioner of New South Whales. bad alike – e.g., the 1958 Eight-Mile tragedy. When he discovered I was from the Methow I graduated from Twisp High School in 1970. Valley, he asked what I knew of smokejumping. It This being a record fire year and having been a seems that he had made a trip to the Northwest to pickup ground pounder the season before, along study the feasibility of smokejumpers in Australia. with four years volunteer firefighting experience, it My letter of recommendation was from the Twisp was easy to get work as a firefighter with the Twisp ranger whom Dick had met and stayed with. Ranger District. I stayed on until November and Upon this revelation he immediately hired me then left for Australia on a lark. and made arrangements for my transport out to the It was in Australia that the smokejumping mys- Snowy Mountains where I was put on a fire crew.

82nd Airborne jump into Medicine Tale Coolly 2009 (Courtesy K. Herron)

Check the NSA website 19 www.smokejumpers.com Smokejumping had started to enter my life. the father of the Army Airborne program, visited I returned to the U.S. for the draft at 19. I was not the Region One smokejumper program in 1940 called up and so decided to kill time until I turned and incorporated smokejumping techniques into 21, the age at which I could apply as a city firefighter. the establishment to the airborne school in Fort I sent in my application and somehow was se- Benning, Ga. lected for the 1972 rookie class at North Cascades They all believed that smokejumpers, who would Smokejumper Base. The next three seasons were jump into some of the most inhospitable country some of the best and most intense training I’ve ever that was also on fire, was all the proof they needed received. I feel that the time spent jumping and the that we were all just a bit crazy. They were also people with whom I worked with were the defining amazed that I accrued more than 80 jumps in just aspects of my future career. three seasons (approximately 12 months). I was hired at Wenatchee Fire Department in In the after-hour “evening beer and bull ses- the spring of 1975. The fact that I had been a sions,” these paratroopers all wanted to hear stories smokejumper made a big impact on my career there. of smokejumping. Meanwhile, my crew and I Within a few months they put me in charge of the wanted to hear their jump stories, especially the rescue equipment with the belief that my smoke- Special Forces who had demonstrated their HALO jumping experience trained me well for these types – High Altitude Low Opening – jumping, which of emergencies. to me seemed far more interesting than the jumps With the help of Bill Moody (NCSB-57) and I had made. Baynard Buzzard (NCSB-65), I was able to update When taking the Special Forces into the high and upgrade much of the harness/rope rescue equip- Cascades for mule pack training, I’d point out dif- ment at WFD. I ended up using this equipment ferent drainages and mountain peaks where smoke- on quite a few rescues and body retrieval missions jumpers had parachuted in to fight fires. They said during my 16 years with the department. that this definitely confirmed their initial belief that During this time I also helped convince several we were all crazy. smokejumpers to take the entrance exam at WFD. I was very surprised at the connections and bonds Eventually there were five ex-NCSB jumpers at the that we formed during this training. I was even of- department. Besides me, there were Bob Brown- fered a jump with the 82nd Airborne. As much as lee (NCSB-76), John Picard (NCSB-76), Kirk I would have loved to take them up on their offer, Hinkley (NCSB-79) and Chris Paul (NCSB-82). my body of more than 60 years, having had more Jumpers were still in my life. than 20 orthopedic surgeries – including nine on I was retired from WFD in 1990 due to a severe my spine – forced me for the first time in my life to spinal injury. I returned to Twisp full-time and took turn down a jump. Yep, jumpers were still in my life. over working our family ranch for my father. I be- Just recently, a retired Army paratrooper stopped gan operating an outfitting/packing business which by the ranch on other business. When he learned eventually expanded into running a cavalry school, that I had been a smokejumper, he began to relate specializing in the school of the mounted trooper how smokejumpers and the military still have a 1860-1920 era. This in turn brought me in contact strong connection. He believed that without the with the U.S. Army. smokejumping program the military airborne would After the Sept. 11 attacks, I began working with not be as advanced and efficient as they are. the military training troops for mounted equine What I have learned most while working with combat operations. In the course of this work, I was our military jumpers is the commonalities between once again thrown into close proximity with jump- smokejumpers and our airborne troops. I’ve gained ers. This time they were paratroopers of the 82nd a tremendous respect for our veterans and I’m proud Airborne Division and Special Forces. to say that I’ve been able to work with some of When these paratroopers became aware of my the finest military personnel this country has ever smokejumping past, I was elevated to a position of produced. some distinction and respect. It seems that these To all the veterans past and present I, an old jumpers were made aware of how Maj. William Lee, smokejumper, salute you.

Check the NSA website 20 www.smokejumpers.com A Louder Thump But No Real Injury by Bob Shackelford (Missoula ’52)

arl J. “Joe” Wilson (MSO-52) spent his a huge larch snag about 10 feet away. I could not first 13 years at the Anaconda Bonner Mill, believe I had not seen it while in the air. But, I had Cwhere his father was cook for large crews. to memorize the eye chart in my doctor’s office to His dad died, and he and his brother, Paul Wilson pass the physical to get into the jumpers. I began to (MSO-50), moved to Osborn, Idaho, in the Silver think a jumper really does need good vision. Valley, to live with an aunt. Joe came out right after I got on the ground, but The aunt had a great heart for the boys but lived his experience was different. His chute just hooked in a very small house. So the teenaged Wilsons skid- the top of one tree, and he essentially free-fell the ded logs by hand, from a neighbor’s hillside forest, last 30 feet or so. The chute flipped him sideways, into their new back yard and built a fair-sized log parallel to the ground. He landed with a mighty cabin. thump, flat to the ground; debris and dust flew. I did seven practice jumps with Joe. In my I knew he must have been hurt. He was just memory, Joe weighed about 145 pounds and was dazed a bit – it had to be somehow a miracle – and just one chunk of muscle. in a minute or two he got up, ignoring any concern. His head was good. He was a Linotype operator He was very tough. and a printer for the Silver Valley newspapers for A few years later, when I was scaling logs on the years. He got away from the publishers for some Hope, Idaho, Diamond Landing, a log truck driver four months, for a few years, but they finally told was killed by a top log falling off his own truck, and him he was too hard to replace. So, for the sake of a that thump was not as loud as Joe’s. I did use my year-round job, he had to quit jumping. first aid then, to no avail. On a cool May morning in 1952, all 13 of us The question must be: Why doesn’t God help early trainees, and a couple of “old” jumpers doing jumpers all the time, rather than most of the time? one of their two refresher jumps, loaded into the C-47 for our timber jump. During my first trip in the big plane, we hit some nasty air while circling. I was about middle of the load and could feel my Get Smokejumper nice, big breakfast beginning to move around, and the door began to look really good. One Month Earlier I finally got to the door and got out, but the NSA members are signing up for the opening caused a big burp and pieces of my break- electronic version of Smokejumper that is fast were lodged in my facemask. I never ate much delivered via email. It is sent in a PDF file breakfast again before a jump. that contains everything that is in the hard I was about halfway down before I got my mask copy issue. clear. I focused on three nice second-growth treetops The advantages are: early delivery (a and put my boots exactly between them, giving me month ahead of USPS), ease of storage, and a most soft landing and hung up about eight feet NSA postal expense savings. If you like the above the ground. The overhead knew what they hard copy, you can download and print it at were doing when they picked this timber jump home. spot. The trees were just the perfect height, in my If you want to be added to the electronic opinion. mailing, contact Editor Chuck Sheley (CJ- I had to do the rope letdown thing as a boss 59): [email protected]. was watching. As I turned my head to thread the rope through the risers, much to my surprise I saw

Check the NSA website 21 www.smokejumpers.com The Hat Makes The Man by Gary Shade (Missoula ’69)

love hats. If I go outside without a “cover,” I feel my part, to measure up to the smokejumper tradi- exposed and yet I even still have this “original tion and work ethic. And, we are the kind of people Iissue” full head of hair. you want to have around when the s—- hits the fan. I just counted the hats in the house and the Jeep, As an example, the urban family from New York and there are 12. My favorite is the NSA tan jumper City wants to know that these river folks, to whom hat. I have two – one beaten up and sweat stained, they are entrusting their families’ lives, are at home and one for more public display. Even if the NSA in the wilds. There is a subtle reassurance to the cover was absent the logo, I’d still have two. guests of Noah’s Rafting that though they’re out in The baseball cap is well designed, well made, the middle of nowhere, the driver and guides are and of quality material. The “Made in Vietnam” people of the forest and river. Guests are in good tag is prominently displayed. Given the jumpers’ hands. role in working for the CIA during their nasty little I had only a few comments from the public that secret war in Laos, the “made in” tag adds a nice the hat initiated. One guide actually spent some juxtapositional touch. As jumpers actively supported time with me, asking intelligent questions about the CIA’s Bay of Pigs invasion, it would be nice to jumpers and their operations. also have a cap made in Cuba. But a cap made by a One of the roles of the driver – in helping out neighbor would be un-American, and verboten un- the guides with the guests – is to make sure that the der the laws of the land. personal flotation device (PFD) fits snugly. I was I still can’t get my head around the fact that the helping one attractive, middle-aged woman getting good commies in Vietnam are now our homies, and her PFD tight, and she noticed the hat and said, yet the bad commies, on a small offshore island, are “Are you a smokejumper?” still seen as an existential threat to our American I said, “Yes, but many generations ago.” way of life. Okay – enough on America’s quixotic Just after she said “Wow” as I got in close and schizophrenic relationship with the world com- and cinched up the side straps on her PFD, she munity, and back to hats. couldn’t speak any longer. This summer I found myself working three part- The third incident was around the risk of wear- time jobs as a professional commercial driver. I am ing a hat like this. On one run, there were several driving tour buses, shuttle vans, and a 4,000-gallon young wise guys who got to making fun of me, as bulk water tanker. Wine Hoppers provided me an old man showing off what he was no longer. This with a hat, but with Noah’s Rafting Adventures and was out of my sight, of course, so when a guest told Shasta Springs Water Service, I can wear my own one about the tweakers disrespecting me, he asked cap. So, I find that I’m wearing my NSA cap this how I felt about the ridicule. season, and something quite startling has happened I said, “Guys who make comments like that with this public display of my history from many are frightened little men leading lives of quiet des- lifetimes ago. peration, and if that makes them feel okay about This piece of cotton thread and cardboard is themselves, then good for them. It’s no never-mind actually affecting my job performance, behaviors, to me.” and attitudes that I have about myself. Ya see, with I wore the hat to all three job interviews this the hat on, I can’t hide behind being normal. With spring to make some kind of statement, I guess, but this public display of my past, there is an elevat- I did get hired three times in one month. With my ed expectation of performance on the part of the first day of work at Noah’s, I was thrust into the life public, employers, and co-workers I serve. circle of a river guide while wearing “the hat.” There There is also an assumption of responsibility, on are 15 guides leading the nomadic life of the profes-

Check the NSA website 22 www.smokejumpers.com I live in a state where cannabis use is legal, and fields around the warehouse are full of pot plants. I’ve yet to see a young guide light up, or hear them even have a discussion about marijuana, but they’ll talk about beer for hours. In the interview for the water tanker job, the work was described as very physical in that there was a lot of hauling and laying hose over rough terrain to get the water from the truck to storage tank, and many times several hundred feet away. And they were right; it proved to be just like fighting hose on the fireline. In the interview, I was asked if I could physically meet the demands given my age. For Department of Transportation commercial driving jobs, the ap- plicant is required to state his or her age. I’m 71. As the boss man looked at my jumper cap and asked if I could do the job, without hesitation, I said, “Yes.” Once again I was challenged to living up to the statement the hat was making. So the other day, I Gary Shade (Courtesy G. Shade) was driving back to the yard after a 10-hour day of dragging heavy, wet, muddy hose across the hot lava fields of Northern California. And I had this sional river rat, and I wanted to make a statement clarity of insight that this dirty, sweat-stained hat I early on that I was one of them and could be relied was wearing was actually the motivating force to get on to do my job supporting their work. me through a long slog of a summer. Of course, any schmuck can buy a cap and put it I am pleased with myself in upholding the mys- on, so I needed to prove early on that I was there to tique around the jumper tradition, and it became serve them as well as our guests, and could do more very clear to me that if you are going to wear the than hold up my end of the raft. hat, wear it responsibly. After about three weeks, I sensed a genuine ac- ceptance into their professional lives. At this time, I have felt a part of their brother/sisterhood and have demonstrated the work ethic – give 100 percent, no Get Smokejumper One Month matter the task – and reliability of a jumper, and my Earlier colleagues know I have their backs. I really enjoy hanging out with these young NSA members are signing up for the digital ver- people. Reminds me so much of hanging out with sion of Smokejumper delivered by email. It is sent as my jumper colleagues way back. I did find one par- a PDF file identical to the printed issue. ticular shared characteristic of the jumper and river Advantages are early delivery (a couple weeks rat: “What do you call a smokejumper or a river ahead of USPS), ease of storage, and NSA postage guide without a girlfriend?” “Homeless.” savings. Download the PDF and print it at home or In socializing with boomers, there seems to be read Smokejumper on your tablet or desktop. three major topics of discussion: the economy, my health, and my politics. In socializing with this set of To switch from receiving the print version of the millennials, the three topics of discussion are guide magazine, contact editor Chuck Sheley (CJ-59) at stories, off-season work/school, and beer. [email protected]. These guys are heavy into crafted beer, though

Check the NSA website 23 www.smokejumpers.com 20 TH vs. 21ST Century Jump Suit Comparison Photos Courtesy NSA Archives 20th Century Smokejumper 21st Century Smokejumper

Two piece canvas Kevlar/Nomex padded jacket & Suit. Resistant to pants. fire & puncture damage.

No chest protectors. Motocross-style chest protectors.

Leather football hel- Ski & snowboard ment with face mask helmet with face & chin pad. mask attached.

Weight-lifters leather Hockey girdles. kidney belt.

WW II era reserve Reserve parachute parachute packed by packed by Certified master rigger. master rigger.

(Not Shown) Gear bag contains Small gear bag hard hat, water, dropped separately food & personal on a drift chute. items.

Elbow & knee pad- Motocross-style ding in suit. elbow & shin guards.

Right leg pocket Right leg pocket houses a 100 ft. let houses a 150 ft. down rope. rappel rope.

High-heeled logger High-heeled logger boots. $25.00 boots. $450.00

Total weight of gear, Total weight of gear, 60 lbs. 110 lbs. Don Halloran, (MSO-53) Todd Jinkins, (NIFC-98) When I saw the photo of Todd Jinkins on the cover of Smokejumper magazine (July 2017), I was impressed with the equipment changes over the decades. His photo was also reminiscent of one taken of me outside the parachute loft at Hale Field, Missoula MT in August 1953. Overall, the equipment of both jumpers appears superficially similar. However, this is deceptive; we need to look deeper to see the changes. e original article about Todd Jinkins’ career, published in the University of Wisconsin alumni magazine, On Wisconsin, (Winter 2016), included an intriguing photo of all the elaborate protective equipment used by present day jumpers. I’m sure that those of us who jumped decades ago will be impressed with what’s now under the jumpsuit. In my day, I felt clumsy and restricted with about 60 pounds of gear. It frightens me to think of increasing that load to 110 pounds. I’d be glad to experience a sturdy handshake from our contemporary jumpers and salute them in their firefighting careers. — Don Halloran (MSO-53) Layout: Johnny Kirkley (CJ-64)

Check the NSA website 24 www.smokejumpers.com 20 TH vs. 21ST Century Jump Suit Comparison Photos Courtesy NSA Archives 20th Century Smokejumper 21st Century Smokejumper

Two piece canvas Kevlar/Nomex padded jacket & Suit. Resistant to pants. fire & puncture damage.

No chest protectors. Motocross-style chest protectors.

Leather football hel- Ski & snowboard ment with face mask helmet with face & chin pad. mask attached.

Weight-lifters leather Hockey girdles. kidney belt.

WW II era reserve Reserve parachute parachute packed by packed by Certified master rigger. master rigger.

(Not Shown) Gear bag contains Small gear bag hard hat, water, dropped separately food & personal on a drift chute. items.

Elbow & knee pad- Motocross-style ding in suit. elbow & shin guards.

Right leg pocket Right leg pocket houses a 100 ft. let houses a 150 ft. down rope. rappel rope.

High-heeled logger High-heeled logger boots. $25.00 boots. $450.00

Total weight of gear, Total weight of gear, 60 lbs. 110 lbs. Don Halloran, (MSO-53) Todd Jinkins, (NIFC-98) When I saw the photo of Todd Jinkins on the cover of Smokejumper magazine (July 2017), I was impressed with the equipment changes over the decades. His photo was also reminiscent of one taken of me outside the parachute loft at Hale Field, Missoula MT in August 1953. Overall, the equipment of both jumpers appears superficially similar. However, this is deceptive; we need to look deeper to see the changes. e original article about Todd Jinkins’ career, published in the University of Wisconsin alumni magazine, On Wisconsin, (Winter 2016), included an intriguing photo of all the elaborate protective equipment used by present day jumpers. I’m sure that those of us who jumped decades ago will be impressed with what’s now under the jumpsuit. In my day, I felt clumsy and restricted with about 60 pounds of gear. It frightens me to think of increasing that load to 110 pounds. I’d be glad to experience a sturdy handshake from our contemporary jumpers and salute them in their firefighting careers. — Don Halloran (MSO-53) Layout: Johnny Kirkley (CJ-64)

Check the NSA website 25 www.smokejumpers.com John N. Maclean and Holly Neill at the site of the Granite Mountain Hotshot deployment, surrounded by a chain link fence. Note the crosses within the enclosure that mark the spots where the bodies of the 19 hotshots were found. (Courtesy J. Maclean)

John Maclean on the Yarnell Hill Fire

riting and reporting that stand the literature of the fire. test of time takes time. As of now, one In answer to the question whether I am work- Wmovie has been produced and five ing on a separate book about the fire, the answer is books have been written on the Yarnell Hill Fire. yes, with a research partner, Holly Neill, a former The most recent, Fire on the Wind, is a personal firefighter who has devoted herself to researching and historical memoir by Diane J. Helm, who the fire from the day it happened. with her husband, Lee, weathered the fire at their It’s already been four and a half years since the ranch, the designated “bomb proof safety zone” fire. Neill and I do not expect to have a full draft at the mouth of the canyon where the Granite for several more years. I purposely have not sought Mountain Hotshots were trapped by the fire. The a publishing contract yet, because I knew this was real name of the ranch is not Boulder Springs going to take a long time and I didn’t want the Ranch, as it appears in the official investigations, pressure of a publisher’s deadline. but rather Not Muchuva Ranch, a wordplay by The only reason to do another book is to take a the Helm’s on their role as semi-retired desert long, hard look at the fire itself, going well beyond dwellers. Full disclosure: I wrote a foreword for the two official investigations which contradict Helm’s book, which is a worthy addition to the each other to such a degree, you wonder if they

Check the NSA website 26 www.smokejumpers.com are about the same fire. And to try, insofar as it’s matized and do not wish to speak, or because their possible, to answer outstanding questions, espe- agencies have told them not to do so. Patience, cially the one about why the 19 hotshots left a persistence and passion, however, have brought relatively safe area to descend into that canyon, some results, and some of them are startling and apparently without demur, at the height of the new. Yes, that’s a tease line, but it’s also true. It’s burn period, when they could see the fire coming also true we have a long way to go. their way. Chuck Sheley’s invitation to write this note for Reporting on the fire has been hampered by Smokejumper magazine is much appreciated as a more than the usual difficulties of access to key way to keep you informed of our efforts. All we people, either because they have been deeply trau- can promise, at this point, is we’ll keep at it.

Rebuttal – Hotshots History of Bad Decisions by Holly Neill

In the October 2016 issue of Smokejumper I ran supervisor and made a recommendation for work an article from InvestigativeMEDIA titled “USFS that was rejected by four hotshot superintendents. Ignored Information From Hotshot Leaders About (Marsh was a division supervisor at the Yarnell Hill Granite Mountain’s History Of Bad Decisions.” NSA Fire where he oversaw Granite Mountain, which was Associate member John Maclean politely told me that under the command of his assistant, Jesse Steed.) … this article was lacking in research and there is another “Marsh’s expectation was we can get this done side to the story. in a short amount of time,” Provencio said. “But John suggested that I run the following piece by Provencio and the other hotshot superintendents Holly Neill who is working with him on his book about thought otherwise.” the Yarnell Hill Fire. Thanks to John making me more Without additional information, it might be alert to checking my sources before printing an article. easy to oversimplify and condense Provencio’s I’ve identified some of the players in parenthesis so that account into a neat conclusion … suggesting you can better understand the cast. (Ed.) that Eric Marsh acted in an unsafe/dangerous manner as division supervisor with supervisory would like to comment on a recent article responsibility for multiple IHC’s … all leading to titled “Forest Service Ignored Information evidence of “Granite Mountain’s history of bad IFrom Hotshot Leaders About Granite Moun- decisions.” However, I believe it is important to tain’s History of Bad Decisions.” Here’s the link to follow through and check facts for such serious that article: allegations. http://www.investigativemedia.com/forest-service- Marsh was not assigned division supervisor as ignored-information-from-hotshot-leaders-about- stated, but was assigned crew boss (CRWB) on granite-mountains-history-of-bad-decisions/ Horseshoe 2 Fire in 2011. There are no records or From the article: “In an interview with Investiga- sources* to indicate that Eric Marsh was assigned tive MEDIA, Provencio (Dave Provencio MSO-77 division supervisor. Hotshot Sup) provided details of a situation on the Personnel from the Horseshoe 2 Fire, includ- Horseshoe 2 Fire on the Coronado National Forest ing the Type 1 incident commander and other in southern Arizona in 2011 where Marsh (Eric overhead, provided their accounts for additional Marsh-Granite Mt. Hotshot Sup.) was a division clarification. The following recollection is from

Check the NSA website 27 www.smokejumpers.com overhead personnel on the Horseshoe 2 Fire, who the work. wishes to remain anonymous: The refusal was a huge thing to the incident “I remember flying it and seeing it. It was a management team. They immediately reviewed all pretty tight little area. We were debating if we of their plans, the thought process, the risk man- should back up to the next ridge or not, and agement, the values at risk, etc. At the end they all there were a lot of conversations like that going agreed that it still was the best option, and the crews on. that were up there also agreed. “Eric (Marsh) had the crew (GMIHC). They When they were finally able to get on with were coming down a ridge bringing fire with the implementation, everything went off as them. He asked Geronimo and another IHC from planned. Crews burned and held some really California to hike up to them and grab it and take difficult line. The lines held through the day, but it the rest of the way down. Both crews turned it early the next morning a spot fire took off, which down. erased all that the crews had gained – it was a sad “There were a lot of conversations going on time for everyone. about this. The ICs got involved when the two Was part of the reason being the delay caused crews said they were turning it down. The two by the refusal? crews wanted to back up to the next ridge.” “Probably, but that was the hand we were dealt The Type 1 incident commander provided ad- and we went with it. … Those hotshot crews that ditional information about the refusal/turn-down implemented all the work were outstanding in protocol used by Provencio and the other IHC. their efforts and attitude – as good as it gets, as far Marsh was not assigned as division supervisor as I am concerned,” said Dugger Hughes, Type 1 on Horseshoe 2 Fire; he was assigned as Granite incident commander. Mountain superintendent/crew boss. He was part Refusal/turn-down protocols were used by of a group of 12-14 IHC superintendents. The Geronimo and the other IHC, and alternative planning and decision process was led by the Type suggestions were made to “back up to the next 1 operations section chief, branch director and ridge.” But the original strategy and tactics led by division supervisor. the branch director, operations chief and division The team had a very tricky piece of open line supervisor went forward as planned, although seri- on the west side of the fire and they were trying ous delays occurred as a result of the refusal. to figure out how to best handle it. There were The following link is to a letter and certificate a multitude of options. Risk management and of commendation from the Southwest Area Inci- safety were the highest priorities. dent Management Team, to the Granite Mountain There were some long, well-thought-out IHC for their professional work ethic, commit- discussions on the go/no go decision to fight the ment to safety and exceptional performance on fire aggressively on the west side, and at the end, the Horseshoe 2 Fire: everyone agreed to go with the plan. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5LiZw3EB When all the lines were constructed and in zOWdnU3MlJSY2k0bDg place – a couple days of extremely hard work by If one-sided accounts are taken at face value, the hotshot crews that were there – and it was we run the risk of over simplifying and making time to burn it out, there were a couple hotshot shortsighted insinuations. In this case, the impor- crews who decided it wasn’t safe and refused the tance of fact checking should be clear. I believe assignment. There weren’t four crews, as Provencio that we can and should be better. states – the recollection being two crews, Geroni- mo and another IHC from California. Notes The refusal caught everyone off guard because * SAIT: H: Qualifications: Master Record: Eric of the earlier agreements. It caused a serious delay Marsh: pg 335; Crew Fire Record 2011: Eric Marsh: in the operational work, by setting everything pg 340; Other: personnel recollections and payroll back several hours and putting a lot of extra strain records. on all the other hotshot crews that continued with

Check the NSA website 28 www.smokejumpers.com RECORDING SMOKEJUMPER HISTORY

were the leaders of a rescue called the forest dispatcher at Tragedy Out squad that included jumpers McCall, requesting help. Webb, Edward Case (MYC-46) The smokejumper rescue Of McCall and Bruce Froman (MYC-46). team carried Lycklama four Fogg piloted the rescue ship, miles on a stretcher to a trail, (Reprinted from the National which fi rst landed at Council, and started down a road lead- Smokejumper Association news- Idaho, southwest of McCall, to ing to it when they were met by letter, December 1993.) meet with Dr. Alvin Thurston, Dr. Thurston, who was heading who gave them emergency in- a ground party. Kenny Roth he first smokejumper structions. They picked up a (MYC-46), former smokejump- fatality in the history more complete medical kit, er and pilot for Johnson Flying Tof this elite organiza- which included blood plasma. Service – now living in Missoula tion did not take place at Mann Dr. Thurston was to meet the – was in the ground unit. Gulch, north of Helena, Mont., rescue team along a road lead- Johnson, Ferguson and on Aug. 5, 1949. Instead, the ing to the trail where the injured Aguirre continued on with the scene was in the Payette Na- jumper would be carried out. group to the hospital, while tional Forest of Idaho. From the time of the ini- Webb, Froman and Case went The accounts of that tragedy tial call until the rescue team back to the fi re and completed were recalled from the recol- parachuted to the scene of the putting it out. lections of John P. Ferguson injury had only been 38 min- Lycklama died at 5:30 a.m. (MYC-43) and Wayne R. Webb utes. Lycklama was the injured July 5 on the operating table. (MYC-46), who were with the jumper. He and Hennessey had He had never regained con- McCall smokejumper unit at been felling a ponderosa pine sciousness. Lycklama became that time. They remember that with a crosscut saw when the the fi rst smokejumper to die in of July 3, 1946, a lookout had top third of the tree broke loose the line of duty. reported a fi re started by light- and fell, almost in an upright It is now a little more than ning, burning on Fall Creek position. 47 years since the accident hap- Ridge, near the Middle Fork of Aguirre had shouted a warn- pened. Aguirre is now deceased. the Weiser River. ing and the sawyers had started Case and Ferguson now live in Three jumpers – Lester running, but Lycklama tripped Ogden, Utah, today and Webb Lycklama (MYC-46), John on a root and was struck in the resides in Yuma, Ariz. Each is a L. Hennessey (MYC-46) and head by a limb from the falling member of the association. Costan T. Aguirre (MYC-46) tree. He was knocked uncon- – were dropped on it. Bob Fogg scious. was pilot. Lloyd Johnson (MYC- The accident happened at Fred Brauer 43) did the spotting and Fergu- 9:30 p.m. July 3. Hennessey son assisted in dropping cargo. had taken off cross-country Profi le The following day, July 4, the eight miles to a road on the (Reprinted from the Static Line, smokejumper base in McCall Middle Fork of the Weiser River April 1994.) received a call that reported that for help, while Aguirre stayed one of the men who jumped on with Lycklama. A passing mo- uring the morning of Dec. the Fall Creek Fire was seriously torist picked up Hennessey and D23, 1944, paratroopers of injured. Ferguson and Johnson took him to Council, where he the 101st Airborne Division –

Check the NSA website 29 www.smokejumpers.com pulled troop-laden gliders on a made you feel like you were number of invasions. The belea- indispensible. Martin “Onie” guered paratroopers of the 101st Onishuk (MSO-51), had been at Bastogne were “his boys.” sent on a brush-piling project at Fred had grown up near Mis- one time, and was told he was soula at what was called Finn getting one of Fred’s good deals Town, The Flat, or West River- in Idaho. On his return to the side, about five miles east of the jumper unit, Onit hung a sack Garden City. After graduating of fresh sheep manure on Fred’s from high school he had attend- office door doorknob, with a ed the University of Montana sign, “Fred’s Good Deal.” on an athletic scholarship, and Fred took over the smoke- had been on the football team. jumper program in Region 1 in He had started fighting for- 1951. He stayed in that position est fires at the close of his fresh- until his 40th birthday in 1958. man year in high school, telling On that date, Aug. 23, he was a tall tale about his age in order suited up and ready to head out Fred Brauer 1946 (NSA files) to do so. He had fought fires on a fire, but was not allowed to every summer after that, and do so because of his age. From then joined the smokejumpers the jumpers Fred went into the Screaming Eagles – were at Region 1 in 1941. He served the Forest Service helicopter surrounded by Germans at with them until entering mili- program and also fire retardant Bastogne, Belgium, during the tary service in 1943. programs. Ardennes Offensive. They were He had been trained ini- Fred has been asked what holding fast, but running out tially as a fighter pilot and dive- it was that made him return of ammunition, supplies and bomber pilot. Upon his return to the smokejumper program equipment. The area had been from the Army Air Force he year after year. He responded, “socked in” for several days and became the Region 1 Smoke- “Jumping was a challenge. It friendly aircraft had not been jumper Fire Suppression Fore- developed good fiber and real able to reach them. man and ran the loft for the good character. I was proud of All eyes had been looking jump unit. those kids. They were just kids skyward as the weather cleared. Those of us who knew Fred, when most of them began, and Suddenly, to the west, there was and worked for him, would within a few years they went the sound of heavy gunfire, and have gone through hell for him. away as real, good-thinking then the roar of approaching We trusted him. He was a lead- young men.” aircraft. A flight of C-47 trans- er, one who demanded much He was one of the men who ports swept in at low altitude, from the jumpers, to include did much to promote and fur- dropping cargo while undergo- proficiency in parachuting in ther the smokejumper programs. ing intense anti-aircraft fire. At order that they be prepared He, like most of us, really misses the controls of the lead ship of for the rigors of jumping into those jump days. We remember that flight was a young Army mountain terrain and fighting words from a song some time Air Force captain, a former fires in rough, dangerous coun- ago: “We thought those days smokejumper by the name of try. He was known as a man would never end …” Fred had a Fred Brauer (MSO-41). who backed his people. severe bout with cancer some For his actions that day he Fred had – and still has – a years ago, but he really bounced would receive the Distinguished tremendous sense of humor. back. He would like to try one Flying Cross. When he was sending you out more jump. Fred retired to Mis- Fred was a veteran pilot who on one of his projects – on one soula and lives there with his had dropped paratroopers and of Brauer’s good deals – he wife off Reserve Street.

Check the NSA website 30 www.smokejumpers.com SOUNDING OFF from the editor

noe Base, so we had by this pretender. been out of touch This started a friendship with the world for that has lasted over the past a week or so. 16 years. I found that Chris I usually get was very interested in smoke- 25-30 NSA-re- jumping, wildfire and was lated emails a day, well read. He started forward- so there was almost ing me fi re-related information 200 waiting for me from Montana and Idaho as to go through before well as obits of smokejump- catching the flight ers that appeared in newspa- from the Twin Cities pers in those areas. All of by Chuck Sheley to Sacramento. Two this was meaningful and (Cave Junction ’59) or three of that total helpful to me as editor of Managing Editor came from members Smokejumper magazine. telling me that Chris Sorensen Wanting to expand the scope My wife, K.G., and I had just (Assoc.) had been killed in an of the magazine, I asked Chris if come out of the Boundary Wa- auto accident on September 10, he would write a column cover- ters Wilderness from our annu- 2017. I wanted this to be a bad ing political and legislative in- al NSA project in Minnesota. dream, but it was true. formation. I thought it would be There is no Internet or cell I met Chris back in 2001 good to have a regular columnist phones at the Wilderness Ca- through the NSA website where for the magazine who was not a I answer all the “contact us” smokejumper. Chris responded communications. This was after and has been writing The View the 9/11 attacks. Chris asked From Outside The Fence for the me for some information on past 16 years. We came up with a “hero” who had been a city that name to relate to a person fireman, decorated military looking at our organization with veteran, a smokejumper and a view of a person who was not was being lauded for his work a smokejumper. during the 9/11 attacks. When I would get a rumor Thanks to the excellent work of the passing of a person, I that Roger Savage (MSO-57) would ask Chris to help me had done in constructing our research the Internet for more smokejumper database, it was information. Early on, he put easy to quickly say that this a search on his computer that individual had never been a would bring up any articles with smokejumper. Most likely, he the word “smokejumpers” in the had also never been a city fi re- text. That helped in the Odds/ man or decorated veteran. Chris Ends column. had been communicating with I found out that he played this person over the Internet high school football in Montana and was furious at being duped and had a love for the game and

Check the NSA website 31 www.smokejumpers.com sports in general. He kept me two – three times a week. It’s quality of the magazine with in the loop every Sunday as to hard not to sit down on Sunday his photo editing and quarterly the results of the Griz, Montana morning and go over the scores centerfolds. At the same time, State, and the other schools in with Chris. It will be hard not in my work with the magazine the state. Way back, my nephew to have his column in the maga- I’ve found that most of my help played at Carroll College with zine. After 16 years it has be- comes from outside the smoke- Bobby Petrino and has coached come automatic to reserve space jumper community. with him for years. Chris told for “The View” when planning It was a lucky break back in me there was really a Carroll my page count. 2001 when Chris Sorensen con- College and they had been As smokejumpers, we have tacted me. It was tragic when he pretty good in football. always been a “tight knit” group. left us in 2017. For those who When Chris found out I was I couldn’t do without photo have read his column and have a track coach, he started keeping editor Johnny Kirkley (CJ-64), known Chris, the past 16 years me up on high school Track & who has greatly improved the have been our “lucky break.” Field in the state. We compared marks and identified athletes Gathering at the Gobi June 2018 who could and would come Mark down June 8-9 for a 2018 gathering at the Gobi. This is not a from small schools to become formal reunion, no registration, no fees, no program, just a chance to get successful at the collegiate level. together with friends and family. Pass the word around. Jumpers from We were in communication all bases invited.

Update From National Smokejumper Program Manager Roger Staats The following update from Roger was sent to the NSA now look at the winter or spring of 2018. The goal is Board of Directors for our October board meeting in to have two operational Sherpas for the 2018 season. Seattle: “The Ram-Air transition this year had a goal of 28 transition jumpers and 28 rookie jumpers. t has been another crazy fire season. The Twenty-six of the transition jumpers completed jump program had steady fire business the training. Only 15 of the rookies completed the “Ifrom June – September. Some bases, such training. The majority of rookies who did not pass as Redding, Redmond and Missoula, frequently were due to physical fitness, tree climbing and units. jumped out. I will be working on an end-of-the-year I believe there were three folks who never reported report and a briefing paper on what is planned for to work. There was only one jumper during actual the 2018 Ram-Air transition and will get those to jumping that was removed from the program. The you to share with the NSA members this fall. transition included all jump bases this year with “Good news on the project proposal analysis the focus on McCall and Redding. Redmond and at NCSB. The decision was to keep the base at its NCSB had two jumpers each that transitioned. current location. Now we just need the funding to “Funding for the jump program and all fire build the facilities. The bad news for NCSB is that programs in 2018 will be challenging. The jump the bunkhouse will be condemned due to health program will be fine, but the challenge is how each and safety concerns. This is mostly due to the age region will work without P-code savings to pay base of the building and it not meeting current fire code salary on fire assignments. So far, all are interpreting requirements. Washington Office Budget direction a bit different. “The Sherpa program did have some delays with “As for me, I spent a total of 43 days on three fire the avionics contractor. Originally, we were plan- assignments (all in Montana) with my incident man- ning to conduct SASES evaluations this fall, but will agement team. It took a little bit of getting used to

Check the NSA website 32 www.smokejumpers.com being the Deputy IC instead of the IC, but I figured Ram-Air training, conducting base reviews, meeting it out. I have spent a tremendous amount of time with leadership and more. I can’t express how happy away from home traveling to jump bases, observing I am to do that for the smokejumper program.”

Remembering John “Mike” MacKinnon by Don Courtney (Missoula ’56)

ike McKinnon (MSO-57) was about doing his duty, and pouring out his own personal the sweetest human being you ever saw. brand of sunshine upon the world. All of this is MHis name wasn’t even Mike. Somebody worth knowing about this good man. But it is not (nobody knows who) called him Mike by accident legendary. What is legendary about Mike McKin- early in his rookie year, and Mike just went along non involves a fire call and a Twin Beech and some with it rather than put out a correction. Many of other things that came together in a legendary way. us didn’t know for a long time that his name was The fire was a perfect little smokejumper affair John. But he was a Mike sort of guy, and in my in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Everything went head at least, he’ll always be Mike. just fine. The spotter, Hans Trankle (MSO-51), Mike’s wife died, and he raised the kids alone; found a good jump spot, put out the drift stream- raised and educated them and set them on the ers until he was satisfied, put Mike in the door, right path. His son became an Army captain, and got lined up, and gave Mike that happy swat on a source of great pride for Mike. It was a hammer the shoulder that meant it was time for him to blow when he was killed in action in Iraq. But go. And Mike went. But he didn’t go far. When Mike seemed to take a deep breath and carry on Hans looked, he saw Mike right below the door,

Check the NSA website 33 www.smokejumpers.com just hanging there. of a time-estimating frame of mind. Over a big You may remember that the Twin Beech had a field, Hans reached out with a knife and cut off wide jump step, room for both feet, and the idea that pesky folded nylon tab and set Mike free. was to sit your butt on the door sill, put both feet Everything went well for the rest of Mike’s in the step, and at the right time just sort of raise jump, except that his leg was totally numb from up and hop off toward the rest of your life. Well, being in what was essentially a tourniquet for there was a very small gap between the top of the much of its recent past. The Beech kept circling, step and the side of the aircraft, right at the bot- waiting for some signs of life, and after another tom of the aircraft door. A very small gap, but just twenty minutes or so, Mike could stand up, wave right for the folded and sewed end of the para- and put out a streamer L. About that time, a chute leg strap to fit down into. The tip of Mike’s pickup arrived and gathered him up and took him leg strap got in that gap, and when Mike’s weight to the ranch house. went downward, that folded tab of nylon strap What was happening there was an annual one just jammed and put an end to the entire opera- or two-day retreat of the top management boys of tion. And there he was. the Caterpillar Corporation, one of whom owned This was the era of the 28-foot candy-striped the place. The rest of Mike’s day was very pleas- parachute canopy with slots and tails, and the ant, and a Forest Service rig arrived to take him parachute was packed onto a plywood board. The back to Missoula. whole works was held onto the board with a can- Mike said that he went back to that ranch vas cover edged with a bungee. Hans laid down some years later and met a young lady whose fam- and reached out and held that canvas cover on, ily still worked there. He asked if she remembered because a 28-foot canopy exploding open beneath him arriving there from out of nowhere. She said the airplane would not be good, not for Mike’s that she’d just been a little kid, and sort of remem- leg and certainly not good for the airplane and bered a spaceman or something doing that. Mike everybody in it. They headed south, out of the didn’t say what he told her, but I think that he was mountains. too polite and gentle to correct her memory, and Between the little town of Ovando and the that she still remembers that there was a spaceman south end of the Bob Marshall is an area of glacial who came to the ranch one day. outwash that grows hay and oats and anything else Good by, Mike. You made us better people, that can endure a very short season between frosts. just knowing you. It took awhile to get there. Mike reckoned a half hour or so, but he admitted to be not in the best Mike passed away October 23, 2017.

Suzanne Rainville (USFS BOOK REVIEW ret. Payette NF Supervisor): “Entertaining, a fun read and Return To Phantom Creek by Bud Filler (McCall ’52) fast paced. A great adventure It took Bud six years, but his novel is finished and story set in the mountains of available. It is self-published and available through Bud. Idaho where the author pulls Burning Mountain Press, PO Box 45534, Boise, ID, you into the action from the 83711 very beginning.” Casebound copies $25 plus $6.00 S/H = $31.00 Loree Nugent (USAF ret. Softcover copies $15.00 plus $6.00 S/H = $21.00 Lt. Col): “Return To Phantom George Harpole (MSO-49): “Return To Phantom Creek is a plot with real life Creek is on track every step of the way. This is a novel experiences developed into an that couldn’t be written better if Hemingway had writ- exciting and overpowering scenario with the reader ten it himself. This is the best I’ve read in a long time.” questioning whether it is fact or fiction.”

Check the NSA website 34 www.smokejumpers.com Remember and honor fellow jumpers with a gift to the NSA Good Samaritan Fund in their name. Hard times can fall on many of us at any Off time. The NSA is here to support our fellow jumpers and their families through the Good Samaritan Fund. Mail your contribution to: The Chuck Sheley 10 Judy Lane List Chico, CA 95926

Stewart S. “Lloyd” Johnson (McCall ’43) magazine for the last 15 years, writing his quarter- Lloyd, 101, died September 19, 2017, in ly column “The View From Outside the Fence.” Fruitland, Idaho. He was born June 2, 1916. His parents were early McCall pioneers. Charles R. “Chuck” Mansfield (Cave Junc- He graduated from McCall High School and tion ’59) attended the University of Utah and the Univer- Chuck died October 6, 2017. After getting his sity of Idaho. Lloyd was an avid outdoorsman Ph.D., he was hired by NASA where he worked and, at age seven, was proclaimed the “world’s from 1969 to 1973 at the Space Optics branch at smallest ski jumper” at the McCall Winter Carni- the Johnson Space Center. Chuck and his partner val. He was active in skiing until age 90 and was worked on an optical instrument for the Hubble instrumental in promoting Sun Valley and skiing Telescope. in Idaho. In 1973 he accepted a position to work for the Lloyd worked for the USFS for many years and Los Alamos National Laboratory. From 1978-88, was the original smokejumper at McCall when the Chuck served as project leader for the Antares base was established in 1943. He jumped at Mc- and Aurora Laser Systems – the Antares Laser Call 1943-53 and has been recognized nationally was the largest carbon dioxide laser ever built. He as the oldest living smokejumper until his passing. then continued to work on the “Star Wars” laser Of smokejumping he said, “We never lost a fire defense program and retired in 1993. because we got on them early.” After retirement he earned his private pilot’s In 1954 Lloyd moved to Fruitland where he license and started three businesses: Coyote Avia- was the owner of a Westcott Oil distributorship tion, Coyote Aerospace, and Coyote Tales Pub- until his retirement. After retirement, he managed lishing. Chuck was a founding member of the Los the New Plymouth Cenex Farm Center for ten Alamos Retiree group and its president until last years. year. Over his career he published 37 scientific Lloyd was a Pioneer Smokejumper and one of papers and co-authored 18 patents. the founding fathers of the profession. Chuck jumped at Cave Junction 1959-69. Due to the heavy timber and high Madrone in the CJ Christian M. Sorensen (Associate Life jump country, it was often difficult to find the Member) climbing spurs and cargo after being dropped to Chris, 57, died September 10, 2017, in an auto the jumpers. In a preview of his scientific career, accident. According to the Montana Highway Pa- Chuck took used peach cans from the Messhall trol, the accident occurred when the left rear tire and attached a buzzer system inside the cans. The on his vehicle failed and the vehicle overturned. “Mansfield Buzzer” was then attached to the cargo He was declared dead at the scene. and the buzzer activated just before being kicked Chris was born in Casper, Wyoming, and out the door. Many a Gobi jumper found their graduated from Montana State University Bill- cargo as they followed the sound of the “Mans- ings with a degree in environmental studies and field Buzzer.” worked for the City of Great Falls, Montana, before moving back to Billings. James N. Sweaney (Missoula ’67) Chris was a regular columnist for Smokejumper Jim died July 17, 2017, at his home in Gardin-

Check the NSA website 35 www.smokejumpers.com er, MT. He graduated from Sturgis High School and jumping at Missoula from 1946-49. in South Dakota before attending the University Bob moved to Missoula after graduation and of Montana as a forestry major. After graduation, went to work for the White Pine Sash Company he was commissioned as a Lt. in the US Army. until the mid-60s. He then went to work for the Following his service in the Army, Jim returned Montana State Forester’s Office until retirement in to smokejumping. He jumped at Missoula 1967- 1979. Bob was active in scouting and was awarded 68, GAC ’69 and West Yellowstone 1970-77. Jim a distinguished service award in 1971. then was employed by the US Park Service until his retirement. Harlan L. Hayes (Missoula ’52) Harlan, 83, died August 14, 2017, in Coeur d’ Ronald E. Gunther (Idaho City ’54) Alene, Idaho. He grew up in Missoula and gradu- Ron died July 2, 2017. He grew up in New Jer- ated from the University of Montana in 1956 sey, and after graduating from Hackensack High with a degree in Forestry. Harlan was a Reserve School, enrolled at Utah State University, followed Army Officer and alternated military postings by medical school at George Washington Univer- with his work with the USFS and BLM in Mon- sity in Washington, DC. While in medical school, tana, Oregon and Colorado. He retired in his he joined the Air Force and was subsequently early 50s and was active in the Retired Federal discharged with the rank of Captain. Employees group and the Freedom From Religion While in the Air Force, he served his internship Foundation. Harlan jumped at Missoula during in southern California and began practicing in the 1952-53 seasons. his field of OB/GYN. In 1991 he moved to Mc- Call, Idaho, and was instrumental in establishing Raul D. Villagran (Boise ’76) a women’s clinic. He stayed active in the medical Raul, 76, died September 25, 2017, in Las practice until retirement in 2001. Cruces, N.M. He retired from the USFS as an Ron trained in McCall in 1954, while a stu- Assistant Fire Management Officer after a 30-year dent at Utah State, and jumped out of Idaho City career. Raul jumped at Boise in 1976. He had ex- making six fire jumps. cellent horsemanship skills and enjoyed packing, riding and hunting. Raul lived in Mimbres, N.M., Ian R. Pohowsky (Missoula ’11) at the time of his death. Ian died August 7, 2017. He was born in Woking, England. After completing his secondary Claude A. Greiner (Missoula ’54) schooling in England, he finished up his studies Claude died May 5, 2017, at a nursing home in at the North American Institute of Aviation in Oklahoma. He jumped at Missoula 1954-55-58, South Carolina. He joined Eagle Airlines, but his Fairbanks 1962, Cave Jct. 1969 and Anchorage passion for the outdoors and rock climbing led to 1972. He was a “kicker” for Continental Airlines a career change in 2007 when he started wildland during the Secret War in Laos. firefighting with the USFS. Ian jumped at Missoula in 2011, West Yellow- Thomas H. Greiner (Missoula ’55) stone in 2013 and transferred to NIFC in 2014. Tom died October 1, 2017, at a nursing home in Oklahoma. He jumped at Missoula 1955-58, Robert A. Crowe (Missoula ’46) Fairbanks 1959-61-62, Cave Jct. 1968-69, and Bob died July 29, 2017, in Miles City, Mon- McCall 1970. Tom was a “kicker” for Air America tana. He joined the military in 1943 and was a during the Secret War in Laos. paratrooper in the 501st Parachute Infantry Regi- ment. Bob was a decorated trooper and survived David H. Evenson (Missoula ’64) the Battle of the Bulge. After the war he earned Dave died October 20, 2017, after an extended his degree in Forestry from Penn State. He was an illness. He graduated from Bemidji State Univer- avid motorcyclist and rode his Harley back and sity in Minnesota and moved to Montana and forth across the U.S. while he split time at school completed graduate work at the University of

Check the NSA website 36 www.smokejumpers.com Montana. Beside his work as a smokejumper, Dave sity System, Office of Higher Education. worked for the National Park Service and the State Dave jumped at Missoula 1964, 65, 67, 68, of Montana. He retired from the Montana Univer- and from West Yellowstone in 1966.

NSA Good Samaritan Fund Contributions Donor In Memory Of/Honor of Brad Willard (MSO-58) ...... Chung family Jim Roberts (CJ-62) ...... Chung family Dave Nelson (MSO-57) ...... Dick Kersh (LGD-76) Bobby Johnston (CJ-51) ...... Chuck Paluso (MSO-51) Steve/Doreen Taylor ...... Terry Egan (CJ-65) Jon Curd (FBX-82) ...... Chung family Hector Madrid (MYC-89) ...... Chung family Dave Stephens (FBX-76) ...... Chung family Bob Dayton (MSO-65) ...... Chung family Lee Lipscomb (MSO-78) ...... Chung family Terry Danforth (MSO-59)...... Jim Sweaney (MSO-67) NEMA/EMAC Staff ...... Terry Egan (CJ-65) Gary Shade (MSO-69)...... Chung family Bob Bente (RDD-88) ...... Chung family Richard Trinity (MSO-66)...... Good Sam Fund Jack Atkins (MSO-68) ...... Chung family Doug Houston (RAC-73) ...... Chung family Ray Mansisidor (MYC-46) ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) J.L. Scott (MYC-48) ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Marsha Webb (Assoc.) ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Bud Rotroff (RDD-67) ...... Good Sam Fund Bob Hannigan ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) John/Rosalie Cramer ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Jim Lancaster (MYC-62) ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Anonymous ...... Chung family Adam/Angela Little ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Tom/Andrea Rich ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Jay Clifton (RDD-58) ...... Chung family Judy Meyer ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Harold Schlachtenhaufen (CJ-59) ...... Chung family Jim Lafferty (IDC-63) ...... GSF/Scholarship Fund Lynn Sprague (MYC-59) ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43) Bud Filler (MYC-52) ...... Lloyd Johnson (MYC-43)

Contributions since the previous publication of donors October 2017 Total funds disbursed to smokejumpers and families since 2004 - $134,940 Mail your Good Samaritan Fund contributions to: Chuck Sheley, 10 Judy Ln., Chico CA 95926

Check the NSA website 37 www.smokejumpers.com Listening To Tanner: Finding Help For A Functional Gastrointestinal Disorder by Jessica Cerretani, Boston Children’s Hospital

The NSA Good Samaritan Fund has been involved with helping the Chung family with medical and ‘It’s very other expenses associated with Tanner’s illness. The real’ following article from the Boston Children’s Hospital in September 2017 does a good job in explaining At a recent ap- Tanner’s problems. Thanks to your generous support pointment, Tanner of our GSF, we have been able to provide significant appeared healthy help to Quincy and Michelle as they seek treatment and happy as he for Tanner. (Ed.) joked with his care team. But his or most families, movie night is simply an vibrant exterior is opportunity to enjoy each other’s com- misleading. Now Fpany while soaking up some mindless age 9, he’s strug- entertainment. But for Tanner Chung – son of gled with chronic former smokejumper Quincy Chung (NIFC-03) joint and gastroin- – and his family, a trip to the theater was life- testinal pain for much of his young life. changing. The road to Boston Children’s has been a long As they watched the tale of a young girl with a one for the Chungs. Despite traveling to see phy- mysterious illness play out on the big screen, they sicians in California, Washington and Utah, an- were struck by the similarities to Tanner’s own swers eluded them—and Tanner’s pain remained. story. “For a long time, it seemed like nobody be- The film was the 2016 drama Miracles From lieved us,” Michelle said. “We even had some Heaven, which is based on the true experiences of doctors tell us it was all in Tanner’s head.” a girl who was treated by Dr. Samuel Nurko at But in Boston, they found validation. Boston Children’s Hospital for a motility disorder. After speaking with Tanner and examining “We had been hoping for some guidance, some him, Nurko thought he had identified the prob- help, for Tanner,” explained his mother, Michelle. lem. “He looked right at us and said, ‘I know “The movie was full of signs.” She and Quincy what this is, and it’s very real,’’’ Michelle remem- decided to contact Boston Children’s. Within a bered. day, they had a return call from practice liaison Nurko made a diagnosis: a functional gastro- nurse Tracy Myers. intestinal disorder, which triggered pain when the “She asked me for details about Tanner’s situ- boy ate, drank and went to the bathroom. Nurko ation and I told her it was really complicated,” then began a multidisciplinary approach to the Michelle said. “She told me she had all day. That problem, using a biopsychosocial model that ad- was the first time I felt like someone really listened dresses the many biological, emotional and social to us.” challenges a child can experience as a result of his A few weeks later, Tanner had an appointment or her symptoms. with nine clinicians at the hospital’s Motility and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders Center, in- A team approach cluding Dr. Nurko, and the family flew east from Since that first visit, the Chungs have returned their home in Idaho. twice to Boston Children’s, where Tanner has also

Check the NSA website 38 www.smokejumpers.com received treatment for a compromised immune While he still experiences the ups and downs system and multi-joint symptoms. His orthope- of living with multiple chronic conditions, Tan- dic surgeon, Dr. Travis Matheney, is part of the ner’s in a better frame of mind knowing that he’s multidisciplinary team working in concert with in good hands. A diehard football fanatic, he also his local therapists and physicians. enjoys engineering LEGO buildings and wood- It’s an approach that Michelle and Quincy ap- working with his dad. And his parents are relieved preciate. that they finally have the guidance they had hoped to “I know doctors can get territorial, but from receive. what we’ve experienced at Boston Children’s, “Every time our plane has landed in Boston, we’ve they really tend to work together,” Michelle said. felt safe and protected,” Michelle said. “It feels like “They care about my son, not their egos.” we’re home.”

Oldest Surviving Smokejumper Dies at 101 An Interview With Stewart S. “Lloyd” Johnson (McCall ’43) by Leo Cromwell (Idaho City ’66)

Lloyd Johnson died September 19, 2017. The following ing, and smokejumping were a very important is a reprint from Smokejumper April 2006. part of his life. Stewart’s nickname, “Lloyd,” was given to him by his father. Later in his life, he was tewart or Lloyd? He does not care what you called “The Whip” by his smokejumper crew. This call him, but he should be remembered as title is said to have originated from Bus Bertram S“The Father of Region 4 Smokejumping.” (MYC-47), who on a very long packout led by Lloyd worked 23 seasons with the Forest Service. Lloyd said, “Even a government mule gets a break, In 1943, he volunteered to be in charge of a new Whip.” He has always enjoyed skiing and was experimental firefighting program called Smoke- named “The World’s Smallest Ski Jumper” on the jumping. Only a few years earlier Evan Kelley, the 1925 McCall Winter Carnival official pin. Lloyd Region 1 Regional Forester, said, “All parachute can still be found skiing on the slopes of Brundage jumpers are more or less crazy and just a little bit Mountain every winter. unbalanced, otherwise they wouldn’t be engaged in such a hazardous undertaking.” Three years Forest Service Career later in 1946, as the war came to an end, Lloyd In 1930 at the age of 14, Lloyd began working hired McCall’s first non-CPS smokejumper crew for the Forest Service while in high school. He was consisting mainly of returning veterans. Lloyd felt hired as the custodian at the Forest Supervisor’s that he worked with the finest group of men that Office. Emptying and cleaning spittoons perma- could possibly be put together during his ten years nently cured Lloyd of ever using tobacco prod- with the smokejumpers. What he did and why he ucts. Later that summer he worked for the district left, this is his story. fixing telephone lines, trails and other types of maintenance work. Raised In McCall When he was 16 he received his first full-time Stewart Standidge Johnson was born in Mc- forest service position with packers George Ander- Call, Idaho, on June 2, 1916. He grew up in son and Harry Fritzer. As the camp tender, he was McCall and loved the outdoors. Skiing, firefight- in charge of setting up camp and preparing meals.

Check the NSA website 39 www.smokejumpers.com When fires broke out during this 1932 season, he your ripcord. That was never approved, but I made his first appearance on a fireline. Lloyd had volunteered for the first deal. When they decided volunteered to be a much needed water boy. His to give it an experimental try here in Region 4, job was to hike to the nearest stream or lake and I volunteered for this great challenge. John Fer- fill a 5-gallon pack with water and return it to the guson (MYC-43) and I were both working for fireline for the crew. Walking around the fire offer- the Forest Service here in McCall, so they chose ing the crew water, Lloyd learned a lot about fire the two of us to go to training in Seeley Lake, fighting procedures. Lloyd was fired three times Montana. Frank Derry (MSO-40) headed up the that summer by a Regional Forest Supervisor from training. So Ferguson, the conscientious objec- Ogden named Floyd Godden. Godden had spot- tors and I trained together. We then returned to ted Lloyd on the fireline and knew he had to be McCall along with three conscientious objectors: too young to be fighting fires. Lester Gahler (MYC-43), Jerry Hofer (MYC-43), Godden approached the young, hard working and Keith Utterback (MYC-43). After the train- youth and asked, “How old are you?” ing was completed, I was placed in charge of the Lloyd replied, “ I don’t know.” new program.” Godden said, “Well, you’re not old enough. During the first three years of smokejump- Collect your pay and find a ride back to where ing at McCall, the crew consisted of two Forest you belong.” Service employees and the rest were CPS (Civil- Lloyd started to leave, then ducked out of site ian Public Service or Conscientious Objectors) and reported back to his foreman, who said, “Dis- jumpers. Lloyd had a lot of respect for the consci- appear kid, we need you up here, so whenever you entious objectors, even though he did not agree see old Floyd, just go the other way.” with them for not going into the military service. He worked on and helped build lookouts that He understood it was the way they were raised do not exist on today’s Payette National Forest. and what they believed in. The CPS crew would Some of the lookouts he worked on were Black- do anything they were asked to do in McCall in mare, Eagle Rock, and Teapot Dome. those early years. That first year the CPS jumpers Later, before taking on the smokejumping were not prepared for the sub-zero temperatures. project, he worked as an alternate ranger on the He had to “beg, borrow, and steal” for clothes to New Meadows District. He also spent time in the get them through the long winter months. The Supervisor’s Office working alongside the Forest CPS program was run by their own organization Dispatcher, Harold “Slim” Vassar. and, after training, they received their jumper base assignment. In 1944, McCall received sixteen of How It All Began In 1943 these jumpers and expanded to thirty-five for the “No one else was crazy enough to do it,” is final year of the program in 1945. how Lloyd answers the question about why he “We had absolutely nothing to work with here took on the challenge of starting a new smoke- in McCall. With no money, everything that we jumper firefighting unit. “It was strictly an experi- got was taken out of the forest funds, and they mental program and it had to be voluntary. A lot handed out money like you would to your kids of Forest Service personnel thought that it would as they were growing up. Our base was started on not work. I was chosen because I knew firefight- the forest property above an old nursery building ing and I believed that this new idea would get that was used for raising trees. It was abandoned firefighters to the line faster without the long at that time, so we took over this building. A cook walks. shack was set up in one corner of the building. It “I can tell you how the McCall Base got had an upper story that we set the smokejumpers started. I got into it even before they started the up in. A parachute loft was constructed to inspect smokejumpers. They developed a seat that would and dry the chutes. We had a pulley system set up work out of a Travelaire. You would sit in the seat to the apex of the building to pull the chutes up and pull on a lever and you would go out the for inspection. John Ferguson and I were the only bottom of the plane, and then you would pull trained riggers the first three years.

Check the NSA website 40 www.smokejumpers.com “The building was a portable military build- and gallons of paint. We used the spray gun on ing. When the Great Depression came along, they everything we had; that’s what held the buildings had to have buildings to house the CCC (Civil- together. We painted the floors gray and built ian Conservation Corps). So then they shipped lockers for each individual jumper. in these portable military buildings; they were “At the food cache each jumper made up his molded together in sections. own food bag for the fire. Everybody did not like “Up the hill we built a barracks with a base- the same things, so they chose what they wanted ment in it. When the forest supervisor, Jimmy to take to the fire. You know, everybody does not Farrel, would leave town, we would slip out there like beans, so you didn’t take beans if you did not and build another building because he would nev- like them. er have authorized it if he knew about it. When he “Everything was set up in camp. We had a ros- came back he would say, ‘Well, what’s this?’ It was ter and when we got a fire the top guys went and a kitchen. when you came off the fire you returned to the “In 1946 the war was over and we hired local bottom to rotate up again. You worked your way boys and veterans to replace the CPS jumpers up the roster until you reached the top and when who provided jumper manpower during the war. you got a fire, then away you went. We did not We built a baseball field near the jump tower. have a fire buzzer at first because we didn’t have I hired Wayne Webb, Kenny Roth, and Dale anyone to ring the buzzer. We waited for a call Fickle, who were great athletes, and they wanted from dispatch over the hill at the supervisor’s of- the baseball field. Others hired that year included: fice informing us that we had a fire. When we got Smokey Stover, Bob Caldwell, Bruce Egger, a call we suited up in our ready room and then got Wally Henderson, Ray Mansisidor, Ace Nielsen, into a pickup that had seats along the sides of the and brothers Ralph and Paul Wilde. We went and bed. Jumpers were all suited and chuted up and leveled off the field behind the base and got the went right to the airport and got into the plane, equipment by the ‘beg, borrow, or steal’ method and we were off in around 15 minutes.” because we had no money. If I needed a dollar, I would have to go over the hill and get down on The First Jumps From McCall my hands and knees. We had a great team until “The first jump was made from the Travelair the fire season got hot and heavy. I encouraged the with Penn Stoor as pilot and I was the spotter. It baseball because it kept the guys in shape. I must was on Captain John’s Creek near Riggins on Au- say some of the guys were better ballplayers than gust 14, 1943, on the Idaho Forest. John Fuguson workers.” and Lester Gahler made the jump using 30-foot diameter Eagle parachutes. The First Smokejumper “The second jump of the 1943 fire season was Buildings In McCall on August 27. I was jumping with Jerry Hofer and Keith Utterback, and John Ferguson was the “We got most of the buildings from the CCC spotter. The fire was near Sloan’s Point in Paddy camps at Lake Fork Creek, near McCall and Flat, only a few miles southeast of McCall. French Creek, up river from Riggins. We would “The wind was really blowing, and I managed go out and tear them down and reassemble them to get my canopy draped over the top of the tallest back at McCall. The last of the buildings we got fir tree in Idaho. We carried letdown ropes that from Gowen Field in Boise. They were already were only sixty feet in length. I looked down and torn apart and lying out in the sun. They were I knew that with 60 feet of letdown rope. I could warped and we had a heck of a time putting them not get even close to the ground. The fire was back together, but we had to have them. Each burning right next to the tree I was in, and I felt panel was about eight foot wide and we bolted like ‘a pig on a stick.’ I unhooked my canopy and them together. They had 2x4 frames and we put took off all my jump gear and threw it out so that the buildings up and finished them inside. We the only thing I had left was my rope. I climbed put up wallboard and covered them with gallons down through the limbs and tied off on the lowest

Check the NSA website 41 www.smokejumpers.com Lloyd Johnson 1944 (Courtesy L. Johnson) one and dropped the rope. It came within 15 feet my rope. I started down the rope and the friction of the ground. burned my hands through my gloves. Today I can “I slowly worked my way down this big sloping still remember the feeling as it burned through my fir. There were little clumps of broken branches gloves into my flesh. Boy, were they smoking! I that made it difficult to work around. I was doing got down to the end of my rope and just cut loose fine until I ran out of branches and I swung out. and did a good roll. Fortunately, outside of my Now all I had between the ground and myself was rope-burned hands, I had no problem, but the fire

Check the NSA website 42 www.smokejumpers.com was crowning right next to me, and I was natural- never even told his wife of their interest in him. ly a little excited. We got on the ground and soon But the forest supervisor was informed when they controlled the fire.” contacted him to reach Lloyd and had discussed McCall’s report of the fire jump says that Dick the possibility of losing smokejumpers to the new Johnson was the pilot of the Travelaire. The fire organization. was running fast and snags were falling. The three Soon fellow Forest Service employees were tell- smokejumpers and a Paddy Flat guard held the ing Lloyd, “We hear you are leaving us to take a fire in check until a crew of 15 firefighters arrived job with the CIA.” several hours later and prevented a major fire. The FBI and the forest supervisor accused Lloyd of “letting the cat out of the bag” about The 1946 Season the CIA. Lloyd was upset over becoming the “fall In the 1946 season, the McCall Unit had forty- guy” and, along with a few other things, he felt three jumpers in the first year after the release of like it was time to find a new career. He was not the CPS jumpers. Forty were in their first year, forced to quit but made the difficult decision on as most of the new recruits were veterans of the his own. war. Lloyd made up rules with the help of the new In the spring of 1953, after training his crew crew and appointed new squadleaders from their for the new fire season, Lloyd quit the Forest Ser- midst. Weight limits were established from 120 to vice as he promised he would. Lloyd was a proud 180 pounds. “If you are over 180 pounds you will man and was very well respected by his crew. hit too hard and if you weigh under 120 you will Wayne Webb wrote a letter that protested the drift too far,” Lloyd informed the recruits. An age way the Forest Service was treating Lloyd, and the limit was placed at 40 years of age after which it rest of his loyal crew signed their support. Webb’s was believed the jumper was “over the hill.” letter is said to have cost him his chance of ever Lloyd preferred to hire the college students in- replacing Lloyd as the new Project Leader in Mc- stead of the “career jumpers.” The students came Call. Lloyd trained the 1953 crew and turned the back from college when the fire season needed job of managing the project over to Reid Jackson them and returned to college as the season came (MYC-49). to an end. He soon had doctors, lawyers, school- In 1953, after 23 years of working for the teachers, forest service leaders, and other profes- Forest Service, Lloyd left and moved his family sional people as part of his earlier crews. to Fruitland, Idaho, to begin his new career as an July 3, 1946, was the date of the first For- oil distributor for Westcott Oil. Lloyd had a very est Service smokejumper fatality in the nation. successful business career and life in Fruitland. First-year jumper Lester Lycklama (MYC-46) was He currently lives in the same house he bought killed after being hit in the head by a limb from in 1953, and his home contains a treasure of a tree that he and rookie John Hennessey (MYC- smokejumper history. This year on June 2, he will 46) were attempting to fall with a crosscut. Lloyd celebrate his 90th birthday with his family, friends, jumped the rescue along with four others. He ad- and smokejumpers. ministered blood plasma to Lester, who later died The story of Stewart S. “Lloyd” Johnson has in the Council Hospital. His Decision To Leave been preserved by the Heritage Program of the The Smokejumpers Payette National Forest, written in 2003 by Under the National Security Act of 1947, the Richard H. Holm. Lloyd’s knowledge and contri- Central Intelligence Agency was established and butions to smokejumping have been preserved on by 1949 the CIA went recruiting for candidates in video by hours of interviews by Bob Webber the smokejumper organization. The CIA wanted (MSO-62). Bob has captured Lloyd’s life and his smokejumpers because of their knowledge of memories of the forest workers, pilots, and smoke- jumping and surviving on the ground after the jumpers so that we will never forget them. Lloyd jump. One of the first people they were interested Johnson is the person that made the smokejump- in was Lloyd Johnson. The CIA talked to Lloyd ing experiment work in Region 4. He truly is the and he pledged his secrecy to the organization and “The Father of Region 4 Smokejumping.”

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Check the NSA website 44 www.smokejumpers.com ODDS AND ENDS

by Chuck Sheley jumped out of Idaho City. We stayed Congratulations and thanks to Jim in touch all through the years and Lancaster (MYC-62) who just visited often when I came west for became our latest Life Member. several Trail Projects and reunions.” Dwight Zwick (MSO-55): “Karl John Culbertson (FBX-69) on the Seethaler (MSO-55) asked in the passing of Dave Laws (RAC-66): “I July 2017 issue of Smokejumper enjoyed being with Dave over the days if any other jumpers had a similar we were at CJ, and I will not forget him experience to his ‘big tree’ landing near running on the tarmac at dusk, long pants Mt. Shasta. I did. and all, stopping to do push-ups and sit- “In 1956 a DC-3 load out of Mis- ups. The old PT drill has served many of us soula was sent to Redding and assigned well over the years. Each carrying on in our to a large fi re on the Trinity NF. own way. Like so many things we learn when “When I was dropped I did not like the we are young. Consistency and perseverance. landing site and steered toward a little bush near Skills that serve big throughout life. the ridge top. Unfortunately, the little bush was “I laid on the ramp behind the loft one night the top of a Ponderosa Pine. I threaded the 110- and watched Dave run. Light faded, runway foot letdown rope through the D-rings and it lights came on. I imagine everyone who has ever was two feet above the ground. worked at CJ or been on standby like myself has “Five days later I retrieved the chute using done that. Feeling the heat of the day coming spurs, a belt with D-rings and a short rope. The off the concrete and tarmac. A nice contrast to tree was fi ve feet in diameter so I had to run the lying in the creek that fl ows through the base. rope around the tree, tie it to one D-ring and Dave recommended we do both and we did, shorted it as I climbed. The remainder of the and I remembered.” crew enjoyed themselves as they shouted advice Karl Brauneis (MSO-77) with some comments on as I climbed. I cut one branch, the crew pulled, July 2017 issue of Smokejumper: “Outstanding Is- and the chute came down. I was still 110 feet off sue. Dick Rath (MSO-73)- Fighting Fire in North the ground. Dakota: The last time I worked with Dick was “Several months later, one of my classmates down in Texas in 1999. I was a Division Group from VMI sent a 35mm picture showing me Supervisor and Dick was the Safety Offi cer. It cutting the limb.” was one of my best assignments. I had a Strike Hank Brodersen (MSO-54): “Chuck - I have the sad Team Leader and Engines from Oklahoma, a duty to forward to you an obituary of a very close dozer and Dozer Boss, Field Observer and access friend of mine, Ron Gunther (IDC-54). He and to Air Operations. We backed up the rural fi re I grew up together on the same street in northern departments. We kept our resources staged at the New Jersey just one block apart. We met in 1944 motel until we received a fi re call. That left Divi- when we were nine years old and went all through sion and up at the ICP (run by the Texas Forest school together until high school graduation in Service) at Round Rock. Dick led the morning 1952. He headed west to Utah State University briefi ngs and afterwards we would head to the while I went north to University of Maine, but local coffee shop and then return to ICP. It truly unbeknown to either of us, we both trained and was another day in Paradise. jumped in 1954. I was in Missoula while Ron “The Texas folks were just outstanding from

Check the NSA website 45 www.smokejumpers.com the Texas Forest Service to the local communi- in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana ties we served. Islands works a Northern California fire in this “Eisenhower’s Remarks of September 22, 1954: recent photo. He is part of a 31-man firefight- Thank you for printing. What a great lesson in ing crew that spent two weeks on a fireline in Civics and the role of government. the Modoc National Forest, and another stint “Karl Seethaler - Enough Excitement. Karl, you in the Six Rivers National Forest, before return- lucky .... When my parachute collapsed out of a ing 8,000 miles to their Pacific homes. Through huge Douglas Fir in Oregon, it flipped me back- the U. S. Forest Service’s Cooperative Fire Pro- wards and I passed out tumbling to be awakened gram, resources from the Northern Mariana Is- when I impacted the ground. The jumpers and lands, Guam, Hawaii, Republic of the Marshall helitack were just outstanding to get me out of Islands, Republic of Palau, American Samoa, there on the rescue jump and helicopter egress and the Federated States of Micronesia can be to Eugene. I went to Disneyland there for two called to fight fires on the mainland. The crew weeks on Morphine. Figure the parachute must was hosted by the Mendocino National Forest have pulled some drag for me to have survived.” during its stay in the U. S.” Jim Hickman (MSO-52): “I just finished writing a Chuck Sheley (CJ-59): “I have a hard time under- historical novel titled ‘Mule Shoes To Santa Fe.’ I standing why we need to import firefighters from grew up along the Santa Fe Trail, and some of the 8,000 miles away when we have so many young story is an actual account of some of my Mother’s people who would love to have summer work as family, the Greenup’s of Kentucky. It’s about two a firefighter. tough brothers and their equally tough cousins “During my 17 years as Organized Crew Co- from the Smoky Mountains who take horses ordinator on the Mendocino N.F., we trained and mules from Kentucky to Santa Fe in 1840, between 3,000 and 4,000 seasonal firefighters when everything south of the Arkansas River was for Type II Crews. They were local Northern in Mexico. There is much action, some tragedy, California kids who were called when needed, some humor, and a lot of human nature. The effective and low cost. Another example of hav- book is available through Amazon or any major ing a blank check footed by the taxpayers.” book distributor.” Davis Perkins (NCSB-72): “I’ve just returned from Jim’s book added to the NSA webstore at www. the Florida Keys with a Mobile Medical Team smokejumpers.com from Heart to Heart Int’l (HHI). Terrible de- Richard Hildner (MSO-67): “I wanted to give a big struction there from Hurricane Irma. HHI is the shout out to Glen Johnshoy (MSO-67). This past same great organization that has sent me to West June 16, Glen completed the 100-mile Bighorn Africa (Ebola), Nepal and Haiti. We were busy Trail Run, Dayton, WY. Out of 331 starters, in Florida doing wound care and giving tetanus there were only 174 finishers, or a drop rate of shots. I was with a great team, most of whom I’d about 48%. Glen did all smokejumpers proud worked with before. It was endearing to see how by finishing in 32:13:01. At age 70, he was the the locals were all looking out for each other. The oldest finisher. The next oldest finisher was 62. best of our human nature.” Bighorn is no walk in the park. Elevation gain is The Taos News printed a great article in one 18,300 feet and is run almost exclusively on trails of their Sept. editions featuring the work done and cow paths. Rain all night long and a little by one of the NSA Trail Crews. Headed up by snow at the turnaround at 8,900 feet turned the Mike Overby (MSO-67), seven volunteers put course into a snot-slippery hog wallow of shoe together “logs on the biggest bridge the Camino sucking mud two inches deep. He finished with Real R.D. of the Carson NF. has built in many a smile. Congratulations, Glen. You can see the years.” Big pat on the back to Mike and his crew. full race report in the September 2017 issue of Kathleen (Bevan) Sallee: “Thank you so much Ultrarunning.” for sending copies of the October 2017 issue From a press release run on national internet of Smokejumper magazine to my sister, Margie news in Sept – “A firefighter from Saipan Island Shouman, and to me. Our brother, Dave Be-

Check the NSA website 46 www.smokejumpers.com van (MSO-55), was one of the smokejumpers “One of the reasons we will not ever know, honored last May with a star on the CIA Wall perhaps, is the fact that the Forest Service re- of Honor. The articles by Ken Hessel and Ivan fused to allow us investigators the chance to talk Shapira of the Washington Post explain this amaz- to Forest Service employees who were some of ing story as well. the last people to shed light on ‘why.’ But I can “We are also grateful for copies of the book share what we do know. ‘Smokejumpers and the CIA’, which we received “The Granite Mountain Hotshots were earlier this year. From the book and conversa- trained and mentored by an Assistant Chief of tions with the six fine former jumpers pictured the Prescott Fire Department by the name of on your magazine cover, we learned more details Darrel Willis. When I interviewed Darrell, he about Dave’s time in Southeast Asia. Fifty-six made the statement directly to me that no ag- years after his death, we are so proud that he is gressive firefighter is going to sit in the black if still remembered. structures are threatened (paraphrase from my “Dave loved his time as a jumper – the ad- memory, but I have the recorded interview). venture, the challenges, and the great people he “I asked Darrell twice if he really meant that, worked with. We’re very proud of our family’s to give him a chance to recant what he had said. connection with the Smokejumpers.” He also made this comment on TV interviews We just got an update from Karen (Weissen- that he did. back) Moen on the project to excavate the site of “So, short of having better information, I Air America #293 that was shot down Decem- have to think that they were trained with this ber 27, 1971. Ed Weissenback (RAC-64) was mindset and executed it. I don’t think they had on that flight. any idea the fire was going to move as fast as it “The (flight) 293 families confirmed that the did toward Yarnell. excavation team and local Detachment team “There is also a theory that they were risk in Laos leave on October 23 – one group from takers and had taken risks on other fires that Honolulu and the other from Laos. Three sons were witnessed by other hotshot crews. I don’t of Capt. George Ritter and I depart from At- personally have the documentation to support lanta, Dallas, and SFO on 10/29 and meet up that theory.” in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on the 30th and head Since the fire in 2013, there have been a to Laos after a day of rest. We’ll cross the border number of books written on this fire. It seems in NW Laos and go by riverboat down to Pak like there is a rush to publish and take advantage Beng where a driver and guide are driving over of the public interest and sales potential. from Luang Prabang to meet us. We only plan I contacted NSA member John Maclean ask- to visit the site two days. We feel being there is ing about progress on his book. If you have read important but know our presence is distracting any of John’s books (Fire On The Mountain, Fire and we don’t want to give them any reason to and Ashes, The Thirtymile Fire, The Esparanza not finish the job if at all possible.” Fire), you will know that he puts in an enormous “Only the Brave” - About the time this issue went amount of time in research. John’s book on the to layout the movie Only the Brave was released. Yarnell Fire is still two years away. See additional The Yarnell Fire and the loss of the Granite information in this issue on that subject. Mountain Hotshot crew is the subject of this film. The film has created some lively discussion among our membership and the general public. Gathering at the Gobi June 2018 The question in many people’s minds is: In the Mark down June 8-9 for a 2018 gathering face of a rapidly approaching fire, why did the at the Gobi. This is not a formal reunion, no crew leave a safe zone in the black? registration, no fees, no program, just a chance Barry Hicks (MSO-64) was involved in the post-fire to get together with friends and family. Pass the investigation and gave permission to print one of word around. Jumpers from all bases invited. his emails in this discussion.

Check the NSA website 47 www.smokejumpers.com BLAST FROM THE PAST

by Jack Demmons chuting, brought the specta- (Missoula ’50) tors right up out of their seats. The Daily Missoulian, The jumpers landed all around June 12, 1944 the football gridiron and on Colorful Ceremonies the slopes of Mount Sentinel. Sound Signal For 5th War There was a hush when the Loan Drive too-long list of names (WWII The colorful ceremonies veterans) echoed across the at Dornblazer Field fi ttingly fi eld. served as a solemn memorial Then came the parachuters, to the men who have given followed by the Star Spangled their all for their country. It 5th War Loan drive opens this Banner. also served as a resounding morning and continues until rallying signal to the army of July 8th. I was at the ceremony and never workers who will take up their Swinging out of the sky, forgot those jumpers as they bailed task backing the gallant armies seven jumpers of the Forest out of the Johnson Flying Service engaged in the world’s most Service, giving their services in aircraft. I had just fi nished the 8th monumental struggle. The a daring exhibition of para- grade. Jack

75 Years of Smokejumpers 1940–2014 This spiral-bound directory contains the names of all 5,884 smoke- jumpers who completed training during the fi rst 75 years of smoke- jumping. The alphabetical list contains the names of all smokejumpers. The book also features each base with their rookies listed chronologically by year trained. The last time this listing was done by Roger Savage (MSO-56) was for the 2000 National Reunion in Redding and it sold out in a short amount of time. All-Time Smokejumpers listing $15/$5 Shipping. Use the order form on the merchandise insert.

Check the NSA website 48 www.smokejumpers.com