Stanley Joseph Reba, Farmingdale, New York
LOCATION: The National Smokejumper Association hosted the Mann Gulch 75th Anniversary Memorial Tribute for Stanley Reba at the National Cemetery at Farmingdale, New York. Reba, 26, died August 5, 1949, along with twelve other Missoula smokejumpers in the Mann Gulch Fire. James Harrison was formerly a Missoula smokejumper but was a fireguard at Meriwether Campground when he died.
Site Coordinator: John Pietras (MSO 73)
BIOGRAPHY: Stanley, age 26, was born on October 15, 1923, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Stan had an older sister Catherine and a younger sister Adeline. He graduated from Brooklyn High School, an all-boys Christian school in Brooklyn, NY, in 1941. He received a football scholarship to Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he joined the Army R.O.T.C. and attended advanced training at Fort Eustis, Virginia. Upon graduation, he was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant and joined the Army Air Corps. Stanley served three years in the South Pacific, including the 1944 battle for Saipan.
He was wounded and received the Purple Heart. He was also awarded the American Defense Service Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, and the World War II Victory Medal. Stan left the service as a 1st Lieutenant. After the war, Stanley attended the University of Minnesota School of Forestry on the GI Bill. He worked summers for the Forest Service and began smokejumping with his good friend Joe Sylvia in the summer of 1948. In the fall of 1948, Stanley married Juline Marie Nagel at St. Olaf’s Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their married life was a brief nine months. Since Stanley was going to school, the couple had little money. Stan worked odd jobs and for the Post Office during Christmas vacation. Reba was described by those who knew him as “that burly, football-playing, smokejumping man” who loved poetry and country-western music, especially Tex Ritter!
His favorite poem was “Crossing the Bar”
by Alfred Lord Tennyson:
Sunset and evening star,
And one clear cal for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face-to-face
When I have crost the bar.
Pietras read Stanley’s favorite poem, reminding those attending that Reba lived a life of service, hope and promise and found solace in Tennyson’s words. That hope, he said, is also part of the Mann Gulch story because The United States Forest Service drew lessons from the tragedy, designing new training techniques and safety measures that developed how the agency approached wildfire suppression and emergency management. “It is always difficult to find something positive from a tragedy like this, but the lessons learned that day have helped save many lives in the more than seven decades since it occurred,” said Pietras.
RECOGNITION: Smokejumpers in attendance included the Site Coordinator, John Pietras (MSO 73), and Tommy Roche (WYS 02). The Memorial Service for Stanley Reba was held at the Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, NY. The Patriot Guard Riders provided military honors for this veteran of WWII. The NSA provided a special brass medallion recognizing each smokejumper for giving his “last full measure” in Mann Gulch. National cemeteries do not allow anything to be attached to the headstones. So, the medallion will be given to Stan’s sister. A copy of Stan’s medallion is hung in the new visitor’s center at the National Cemetery in Long Island and John Pietras gave another to Ace Reba to give to his grandmother in California, Stanley’s sister.
MEDIA: Reporter Carolyn James, for the Massapequa Herald-Post, filed the story about the memorial held at the National Cemetery at Farmingdale. Here is a link to her story.
US National Cemetery, Farmingdale, NY
