The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1942-07-30
Life Of Smoke
Jumper Is
Interesting
Parachutists Undergo
Rigid Training in
Fighting Forest Fires.
DICK RICHARDS, JR.
TELLS OF EXPERIENCES
Seeley Lake, Montana
I,lv 81 1OdC

Seeley< Lake, Montana
July 20, 1912
Editor Western News:
Since the Forest Service has such
a prominent place in the commun-
ity life of Libby, | thought | might
drop you little potentially inter-
esting information about one of
the most interesting and exciting
jobs the Forest Service offers. 1t
happens to be the job on which l
am employed this summer, and is
that of parachuting firefighter,
or as we're called in the Service,
Smoke Jumper.
Previously, at least three years
of smoke chasing experience have
been required to make the para
chute squad, but this year due to
the lack of experienced manpoWer
felt everywhere, the requirements
in that respect were lowered Ex-
actly what qualifications put me in
I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure
that good physical condition, flying
training, several summers of recrea-
ton in the mountains around home,
and quite a lot of interest and en-
thusiasm in the work all helped.
We started training around the first
of June up at Nine Mile camp, and
were there for approximately a
month. On July 9th the crew was
split into four squads of eight men
each, and two squads were sent to
be stationed up here and to es-
tablish next years training base,
while one squad was sent to Moose
Greek in Idaho and one to Big
Prairie on the South Fork of the
Flathead
By now we have practically fin
ished our training, the weather hav-
ing been more or less Of hinder
ance. We have seven jumps to our
credit, the last one being a jump
into small clearing in the midst
of hundred-foot tar11aracks. IF you
don't hit the clearing you get hung
up so to rs feet from the ground and
have to use special let-down tech
nique with the use of rope carried
in our suits for that purpose. We
have to 60 to work on our chutes
as soon as they open in order to
guide them to the spot, as it only
takes about a minute and a half to
reach the ground. We are able to
guide our chutes to quite an ex-
tent, which you can see would be
a valuable asset in our kind of
jumping, to avoid taller trees, snags,
and generally unfavorable terrain.
If we are unable to avoid tough
landing, however, precautions have
been taken in that event We wear
specially padded suits of heavy can
vass, ankle and back braces, and
football helmets with a special mask
to protect the face. Emergency
chutes are required equipment, be-
ing worn in front, and come in
handy quite often in making land
ings, as the usual procedure is to
fall forward Immediately on making
contact with the ground, and the
emergency pack provides somewhat
of cushion to fall on. 1t is quite
a sight to see a squad of the boys
all suited up, with full equipment
and back and emergency packs on.
We have also had firefighting train
ing, and some law enforcement
work in our preparation.
So now it will be all in the days
work to drop 1000 feet from plane
and hit blaze in the back coun-
try. Oar work will take us to the
most remote fires, that being the
primary object of our set-up, to
get to the fires that would take
any other means of transportation
too long to reach Consequently
we have the prospects of long
hike out to even the nearest trail
after we've put the fire out Our
fire packs are dropped to us after
we land, and we also jump small
radio to maintain contact with the
plane from the ground We have to
pack out all this stuff, including
all the suit, two chutes, and our
fire. packs, to the nearest place
where it can be picked up by pack
string, SO that it all adds up to work
and lots of it, and good condition
to stand up under it. We are on
call "a hours a day, seven days a
week, and when not fighting fires
we work on projects around the
ranger station, such as maintenance
of equipment, construction of build
ings, and other regular forest work.
Never having had any fire expert
ence, that will undoubtedly be the
toughest angle Of this job for me.
OF course the jumping is still a
pretty spectacular method of trans
portation and that's what the at
tention of the public Is usually TO-
cused upon. So far the jumping
has been thrilling and a lot of fun,
but | think I've flown enough to
take all element of fright out Of it,
and I've enjoyed it lot.
Probably the flying angle of the
job was the original attraction for
me. During the last year / took the
Civilian Pilot Training program
through the University at Missoula,
and have completed both the pri-
mary and secondary courses, with a
total Of about 85 hours in the air.