Fractured Fables from the Fire Line Jan 96
by Jack Demmons (MSO 1950)
We received an urgent message at 2100 hrs. from dispatch that a search plan was in place. The plan called for “Fixed wing at 0600, choppers at 0700, and search dogs at 1000 hrs.
Some Injuries
by Asa Mundell (MSO '43)
Asa Mundell, MSO 43, published a book in 1993 with the title Static Lines and Canopies. Stories from the Smokeiumpers in Civilian Public Service Camp No. 103, Missoula, Montana 1943. 1944, and 1945. Asa gave us permission to reproduce one of those stories concerning Earl Schmidt. Asa lives at Beaverton, Oregon.
Lucky to Be Alive
by Greg Whipple (MSO, 59)
On the day of the crash, Greg’s wife had told him to take some leave time. She had had a dream about a plane crash, but the plane didn’t bum. In her dream she had called repeatedly, “No fire, no fire, no fire.” . And in her dream she had put the fire out.
Turboporter Accident
by Bill Bull (MYC '64)
I adjusted the headphones and picked up the radio’s microphone to call the dispatcher. We were passing through an altitude of 400 feet as I depressed the button and started to speak. It was then that the engine quit!
Bear Mauling at Big Horn Pass
by Bob Boyer (RDD '67)
I realized there would be a need for helicopter evacuation a I remember turning to the new dispatcher and saying, “Don’t ever blow the whistle unless you have a confirmed request. However, I’m going to break that rule because our jumpers and pilots are leaving the base and I know YNP’s second helicopter isn’t in place for its contract.”
Rescue Mission in the South Fork Primitive Area
by Jack Demmons (MSO 1950)
Dr. Martin had trained at Missoula under Frank Derry and had also taken some training in parachuting at Moose Creek in the Nez Perce National Forest. He was not a smokejumper, but had taken parachute training on his own so as to be jump-qualified for rescue operations. (Medical journals in the United States referred to him as the only “Jump Doctor” in the nation at that time.)
Deanne Shulman, McCall, First Woman Smokejumper
by Jack Demmons (MSO 1950)
She also said that one of the biggest thrills in jumping is during the first few seconds out of the door of an aircraft, a time of free fall, and a sort of out-of-control feeling, and then the opening of the chute, followed by the challenge of getting down to the jump spot.
Black Paratroopers Where WWII Smokejumpers
by Carl Gidlund (MSO 1958)
A unit officer, now-retired Lt. Col. Bradley Biggs, recalls the mission, dubbed by the War Department “Operation Firefly.”
Tragedy Out of McCall
by Jack Demmons (MSO 1950)
The first Smokejumper fatality in the history of this elite organization did not take place at Mann Gulch north of Helena, Montana on August 5, 1949. Instead, the scene was in the Payette National Forest of Idaho.
Here’s What We’ve Been Up To
by Jack Demmons (MSO 1950)
We filed our Articles of Incorporation as a non-profit, public interest corporation on Sept. 24, 1992.
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