Philip R. McVey, Ronan, Montana
LOCATION: The National Smokejumper Association hosted the Mann Gulch 75th Anniversary Memorial Tribute for Philip, 22, who died August 5, 1949, along with twelve other Missoula smokejumpers in the Mann Gulch Fire. The memorial was held at the Ronan Cemetery in Ronan, Montana, on August 10, 2024.
Site Coordinators: Nels Jensen (MSO 62), Larry Ashcraft (MSO 62) and Ron Normandeau (MSO 62)
BIOGRAPHY: He was born in Choteau, Montana, on April 1, 1927, to Clarence and Lillian McVey. Clarence was a U.S. Immigration Service officer assigned to the U.S.-Canada border. During Phil’s childhood, his family moved to multiple places along the border. He attended high school in Browning, Montana, on the Blackfoot Indian Reservation, starting his junior year. He loved sports and played baseball and basketball. He was an excellent athlete who played semi-pro baseball as a shortstop. In the summer of ’42, he went on an adventure with some buddies, riding their bikes 400 miles just for something to do. He was always looking for ways to have fun.
He entered Browning High School in the fall of 1943 at the start of his junior year. His class was very small, consisting of only six students. Since Phil’s father worked for the U.S. Immigration Service near the Canadian border, Philip was allowed to stay in the school dormitory.
Phil, who preferred to be called “Flip,” left school shortly before graduating to join the Navy in 1945 and became an absentee graduate. Phil served as an airman in the Navy. After the war, he lived with his parents in Ronan and started smokejumping at the Nine-mile Ranger station to earn money for college at the University of Montana. He served five seasons with the USFS and was in his second season as a smokejumper.
RELATIVES: Dean and Janet McVey
CEREMONY: Smokejumper Nels Jensen led the ceremony at Ronan Cemetery, assisted by Ron Normandeau and Larry Ashcraft. Thirty-nine attendees signed the tribute registry; Others were present but did not sign the register. Ron was the main speaker. The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) played Taps and honored McVey, a US Navy veteran. Rev. Jon Umbdenstock of the United Methodist Church in Ronan offered the benediction.
The perfect and fitting conclusion of the event was a flyover of the DC-3, “Miss Montana,” the restored jump plane that dropped the jumpers into Mann Gulch in 1949. Bob Dayton dropping a single streamer from Miss Montana as it flew over was a very special and moving moment. The NSA provided a special brass medallion affixed to his gravestone so anyone who read the inscription would know that Philip McVey was indeed a hero recognized by the National Smokejumper Association.
RECOGNITION: Smokejumpers in attendance included Nels Jensen (MSO62), Sarah Doehring (MSO 91), Bob Dayton (MSO 65), Nate Hess (RDD 01), Mark Pieper (MSO 06), Larry Ashcraft (MSO 62) and Ron Normandeau (MSO62), Jim Kautz (MSO 74), Jim Reeve (RAC 82), Jim Clairmont (MSO 65), Pat “Bud” Ward (FBX 67), Homer Courville (MSO 61), and Louis Fleming (MSO 06). Wildland Firefighters, Hotshots, USFS, and BLM firefighters were invited to the ceremony.
MEDIA: Summer Goddard (writer) published an article in Ronan’s Valley Journal on Phillip McVey
