Smokejumper Magazine, October 2002 National Smokejumper Association
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Eastern Washington University EWU Digital Commons Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines University Archives & Special Collections 10-1-2002 Smokejumper Magazine, October 2002 National Smokejumper Association John Culbertson Fred Donner Steve Smith Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag Recommended Citation National Smokejumper Association; Culbertson, John; Donner, Fred; and Smith, Steve, "Smokejumper Magazine, October 2002" (2002). Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines. 37. https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag/37 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the University Archives & Special Collections at EWU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines by an authorized administrator of EWU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The National Smokejumper Quarterly Magazine SmokejumperAssociation October 2002 Inside This Issue: Jimmy ........................................................................................................... 15 Fight Fire or Fish .......................................................................................... 30 Interview with John Maclean ........................................................................ 42 CONTENTS Message from Message from the President ......................... 2 Smokejumping and the American West ........ 3 Two Montana Girls Give a the President Smokejumper a Ride ............................. 7 Featured Life Member Stephen Rhodes ........ 8 the University of Montana will each Almost Losing One ..................................... 10 contribute to this important and Featured Life Member Adam Lauber .......... 11 worthwhile effort. The Barracks Bash ..................................... 12 Volunteerism is at the heart of the Sounding Off from the Editor..................... 14 NSA and must continue. However we Jimmy ........................................................ 15 must recognize the potential dangers Odds and Ends ........................................... 20 to an organization if overly reliant on Gobi to the FBI ........................................... 24 volunteers. It has always amazed me Horsing Around ......................................... 25 that we have had such good, profes- Member Profile Larry Casey ....................... 27 sional work from our members. At the Checking the Canopy .................................. 28 same time I have worried about what Featured Life Member James E. Rathbun ... 29 would happen to NSA if any of these Fight Fire or Fish ....................................... 30 key volunteers became ill or just Smokejumpers and the CIA ........................ 32 burned out from all they were doing. Featured Life Member Murry Taylor .......... 33 In order to avoid building a “house-of- Touching All Bases ..................................... 34 cards” we need to ensure backup sys- Taylor Ranch Fire ...................................... 38 by Ron Stoleson tems for all we do. Our business is be- Ambience ................................................... 39 (Missoula ’56) coming more complex and some of Items from the Fire Pack ........................... 40 PRESIDENT the things that we have been doing Featured Life Member Jerry Linton ............ 41 AS A FIRST ORDER OF business in taking with volunteers may need to be con- Interview with John Maclean...................... 42 over the presidency of NSA, I want to tracted for. However we must always Off the List ................................................. 46 say “thanks” and “well done” to Larry remember that the leadership and di- NSA Guest Book ......................................... 47 Lufkin for his service to the outfit dur- rection for the Association cannot be The View from Outside the Fence ............... 48 ing the last two years. The Association contracted out. We will always need Green Eggs and Purple Ham ...................... 49 has grown during his tenure as presi- members to be active or we will be- Jump List ................................................... 50 dent and we are on a solid footing fi- come irrelevant to the entire Letters ....................................................... 52 nancially. I hope we can maintain and smokejumper community. Blast from the Past ..................................... 54 improve on this position. The next meeting of the full board The life membership program spe- of the Association will be in Boise on cially enhances our financial picture October 12. This will be an important and that’s why I particularly want to meeting that will probably determine promote the goal Larry set two years the future of our Association. Tom ago of having 200 life members. We Uphill has led an effort to produce a are nearing 100 life members at draft long-range plan and he is well SMOKEJUMPER, ISSUE NO. 37, OCTOBER 2002 present and I think the 200 goal is re- along in his work. We will be discuss- Smokejumper is published by: alistic. A life membership would be a ing that plan at the meeting. Members THE NATIONAL SMOKEJUMPER ASSOCIATION good Christmas or birthday present are always welcome to attend any of ISSN 1532-6160 for a spouse to give their mate. The our meetings but we do need to know The opinions of the writers are their own and dues are tax deductible because of ahead of time in order to have the do not necessarily reflect those of the NSA. NSA’s non-profit status as recognized proper size meeting room. NSA Web site: http://www.smokejumpers.com by the IRS. The funds are placed in an If any of you have thoughts on Managing Editor: Chuck Sheley interest earning account and therefore how we can better our organization, let Editing: Francine Gair provide an assured and continuing us know at any time but be sure to in- Profiles and Features: Ted Burgon, Pic Littell source of much needed income to the clude ways to achieve the improve- and Chris Sorenson organization. ment. We get some great ideas but Illustrators: McElderry Books, Nick Holmes, unfortunately we don’t get an equal Chris Demarest, Ken Morris, Dan The continuing efforts at preserv- Veenendaal and Eric Rajala ing smokejumper history are at the number of volunteers to do the work. Layout/Printing: Larry S. Jackson, Heidelberg very heart of our organization’s reason Please step up to the plate and help out Graphics, Chico, CA for existence. The agreements we have your Association by volunteering your time. Everyone has a skill that can be Cover photo: Jimmy Pearce (Courtesy of made with the Evergreen Museum, John Culbertson) The Museum of Mountain Flying and used. Check the NSA Web site 2 www.smokejumpers.com Smokejumping and the American West by Jerry Dixon (McCall ’71) he man sitting next to me at the defensive driv- An airplane appeared at dawn. In the faint morning ing course in McCall, Idaho, had a name card, light, the survivors could see streamers descending from Larry Swan — Smokejumper (MYC ’68). It had the plane and then parachutists dropping under orange T and white canopies. Smokejumpers from the nearby base a nice ring to it and I remembered back 12 years. On the evening of August 17, 1959, my family had stopped at were landing on the island in the middle of the rapidly West Yellowstone, Montana, on our way to Yellowstone filling lake to cut helispots and medivac the survivors. Park. The vacation plans were interrupted when an earth- (From Smokejumper magazine, I later learned my MYC quake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale rocked the area. pilot Bob Nicol — MSO ’52 was a jumper on this res- The earthquake’s epicenter was below us, but the cue.) greatest damage was a few miles away on the Madison I asked Larry if he would introduce me to the River. A mountain was cut loose and slid into the gorge, smokejumper foreman during lunch, so I could ask him wiping out a campground full of tourists and damming for a job. the river with tons of rock and debris. Other campers Walking into a jump base in the middle of rookie were trapped on a hill that became an island behind the training and asking for a position on that year’s squad is rising waters of Earthquake Lake. like walking into a medical school and asking to sign up for gross anatomy — there are procedures, papers, refer- 123456789012345678901234567890 rals that must proceed the applicant. I was not aware of 123456789012345678901234567890 123456789012345678901234567890 that. 123456789012345678901234567890 Del Catlin (MYC ’47), the foreman, was in his late 12345678901234567890123456789NSA Members — Save 0 123456789012345678901234567890 forties and rod straight. He had short brown hair and a 123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789This Information 0 clean-shaven square jaw, the kind of a man you would 123456789012345678901234567890 imagine saw his initiation when I was a pup. It was ear- 12345678901234567890123456789Please contact the following persons 0 12345678901234567890123456789directly if you have business or questions: 0 lier than that. During WWII, Del Catlin made the night 123456789012345678901234567890 123456789012345678901234567890 jump that liberated Corregidor, the island fortress where 12345678901234567890123456789Smokejumper Magazine & Merchandise 0 12345678901234567890123456789Articles, obits, change of address, orders 0 McArthur said he would return. Del looked as though 123456789012345678901234567890 he could still make that jump easily. 12345678901234567890123456789Chuck Sheley 530-893-0436 0 123456789012345678901234567890 I listed