Smokejumper Magazine, April 2008 National Smokejumper Association
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Eastern Washington University EWU Digital Commons Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines University Archives & Special Collections 4-1-2008 Smokejumper Magazine, April 2008 National Smokejumper Association Jack Ridgway Denis Breslin Joe Rumble Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag Recommended Citation National Smokejumper Association; Ridgway, Jack; Breslin, Denis; and Rumble, Joe, "Smokejumper Magazine, April 2008" (2008). Smokejumper and Static Line Magazines. 64. https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_mag/64 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 April 2008 If You’re Here, I Must Be About Dead ............................................14 Rescue Dawn—A Big Disappointment...........................................22 Death of a Smokejumper ...............................................................29 CONTENTS Message from Message from the President ......................... 2 South Fork of the Snow River ...................... 3 the President Odds and Ends ............................................. 5 Commandos and Misery Whips .................... 6 Checking the Canopy .................................... 7 ball talents on the court of glory. In Marv Makes Smokejumping Seem Like Small those days we played hours of Stuff ....................................................... 8 volleyball when we were on standby, A Smokejumper’s Memories ........................ 9 led by Hal. He is missed. Dorothy is The View from Outside the Fence ............... 10 fighting for her life battling cancer, The Gene Hobbs Incident ........................... 11 In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time—In and I wish her and the family all of the Right Place at the Right Time ......... 13 the best. The book was a passionate If You’re Here, I Must Be About Dead ........ 14 tribute to her Hal, and the entire Brothers .................................................... 18 family and I thank Bill for letting me Book Review .............................................. 19 be a part of those memories. Items from the Fire Pack ........................... 20 I also want to wish Don Brennan Rescue Dawn—A Big Disappointment ....... 22 by Doug Houston (NCSB-54) the best for 2008. D.B. Rendezvous ............................................... 23 (Redmond ’73) is a walking tattooed mural of Smokejumper Museum Backers Looking for Green Light .......................................... 24 PRESIDENT smokejumping and firefighting. He The Smokejumper Nine ............................. 25 has sat through hours of needle Life After Smokejumping ........................... 26 IT’S JUST AMAZING THAT another year pricking, but the artwork of Smokey Death of a Smokejumper ........................... 29 has gone by so fast, and we’re into Bear, airplanes, parachutes, fire, NSA Offers Gift Membership ...................... 30 2008. I can’t speak for all of you, but tributes to the fallen, and more, is Off the List ................................................. 30 it seems like it’s going a little too fast really well done. Don was a little Only in Alaska ............................................ 31 for this boy. It’s a good ride so I under the weather at the reunion and guess we’ll just see what this new I wish him a healthy year. He has an year brings. interesting story of being interviewed The new year has already brought by the FBI, being a “person of me a special book written by Bill interest” in the DB Cooper Furman (NCSB-62) titled “Conver- highjacking, especially with his sations With My Mother.” The parachuting background. We’ll package also included a DVD of probably never know? interviews by jumpers/friends of Hal Paige and I also want to wish Sara SMOKEJUMPER, ISSUE NO. 59, APRIL 2008 Weinmann (NCSB-47, past NCSB Brown (RAC-2003), who was ISSN 1532-6160 and Redmond jumper foreman, who injured in New Mexico last summer, Smokejumper is published quarterly by: THE NATIONAL SMOKEJUMPER ASSOCIATION died not too long after the Septem- a full recovery. We know she is still C/O 10 JUDY LANE ber reunion. The book was filled undergoing rehab and has a ways to CHICO, CA 95926 with interviews with Bill’s mom, go. Hang in there, Sara. The opinions of the writers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the NSA. Per- Dorothy, who married Hal in 1959, With that, the NSA board has mission to reproduce Smokejumper in any man- raising five boys, and living the meetings scheduled in Hamilton, ner must first be obtained in writing. smokejumper experience for years Montana, McCall, Idaho, and NSA Web site: http://www.smokejumpers.com Managing Editor: Chuck Sheley both in Winthrop and in Redmond. Redmond, Oregon. Check the Editing: Ed Booth, Bill Fogarty, Johnny Kirkley, I was fortunate to be hired by Hal in magazine for dates, and we welcome Jill Leger, and K. G. Sheley 1973, and then took over his all of you to attend and see how the Illustrators: McElderry Books, Nick Holmes, position at RAC in 1980 (training/ great minds work for you. Chris Demarest, Ken Morris, Dan Veenendaal, and Eric Rajala operations foreman) when he Until next time, there’s 100 yards Printing: Larry S. Jackson, Heidelberg retired. Hal was a true leader who of drift, you are hooked up, your Graphics, www.HeidelbergGraphics.com enjoyed his job and life, and I have a arm is clear, and the whole world is a Cover photo: NCSB Jumpers (Courtesy Michael Magaurn) lot of fond memories of his volley- jump spot. Enjoy the ride……… Check the NSA Web site 2 www.smokejumpers.com South Fork of the Snow River by Jerry S. Dixon (McCall ’71) ooking at the gorge near the headwaters of the South During the winter the water in Fork of the Snow River put my heart in my throat. the stream is as clear as gin. Now it LJim Craig and I were flying a Cessna 182 over the is running at medium high and it glacier that is the headwaters of the South Fork and Nellie is opaque with glacier silt. It has Juan drainage. After plunging out of the glacier, the stream been high most of the summer heads west and drops into a narrow gorge with waterfalls from record high temperatures and and logjams. retreating glaciers. I have been The South Fork is a beautiful salmon stream that flows flying it for a month trying to into the Snow River, 15 miles north of Seward, to form the gauge the best time to run this Jerry Dixon (NSA file) part of the headwaters of the Kenai River. Awesome glacier- river as I can find no record of it draped peaks rise from the valley floor with names like being run before. Tiehacker, Eva and Goat Mountain. The Iditarod trail runs Rich Taylor and I hike up the river on September 9, several miles up the South Fork before turning south to 2005, carrying our Alpacka rafts. Rich is a river guide from cross a pass and drop down near Bear Lake near Seward. England who worked in Jackson Hole and ran the Grand Canyon with friends and me last summer. Although he has 123456789012345678901234567890 never paddled a backpack raft before, he is an expert boater. 123456789012345678901234567890 123456789012345678901234567890 There are brown bear tracks everywhere. At one point 12345678901234567890123456789NSA Members — Save 0 123456789012345678901234567890 there is a trail in the river bank that has been pounded down 123456789012345678901234567890 by many brown bears passing through. Two days previous 12345678901234567890123456789This Information 0 123456789012345678901234567890 we watched a brown bear and cub cross the Harding Ice 12345678901234567890123456789Please contact the following persons di- 0 Field to Skilak Glacier. We make lots of noise as we ford the 123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789rectly if you have business or questions: 0 river and push through the alders. 123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789Smokejumper magazine 0 We hike up to within a mile of where the river narrows 12345678901234567890123456789Articles, obits, change of address 0 and becomes Class III. Above that it is Class IV. There is 123456789012345678901234567890 12345678901234567890123456789Chuck Sheley 530-893-0436 0 one Class V section and then the river turns east and enters 123456789012345678901234567890 the Class VI gorge. Rich is young and near the wild heart of [email protected] 0 123456789012345678901234567890 life; he wants to push higher. Last year in the AMWC 1234567890123456789012345678910 Judy Ln 0 Eureka to Talkeetna race, I flipped in a rapid right above the 12345678901234567890123456789Chico, CA 95926 0 123456789012345678901234567890 gorge. I swam to shore just above the entrance to the 12345678901234567890123456789Membership 0 123456789012345678901234567890 canyon. Bushwhacking down the canyon I fell, dislocated 12345678901234567890123456789John McDaniel 785-668-2093 0 my shoulder and was rescued by the Alaska Mountain 123456789012345678901234567890 [email protected] 0 Rescue Group. I tell Rich that running the South Fork 123456789012345678901234567890 would be exciting with logs across the river and whole trees 12345678901234567890123456789P.O. Box 105 0 12345678901234567890123456789Falun, KS 67442-0105 0 in the stream and that I didn’t have the