The Gritty, Gutsy World of Smokejumpers

By Scott Poniewaz, 8-01-05

	Rookies jump into a medical scenario near the Ninemile Ranger Station. This year's Missoula smokejumper training program included many improved scenarios and a focus on leadership training. Photo by Scott Poniewaz/New West

The spotter has thrown the streamers to mark a landing spot, and relayed the information that there is 100 yards of wind drift from the 1,500-foot altitude. The spotter announces, “The next pass is live,” so the first two jumpers move to the door and grab the handles. The first guy has a foot on the step and the spotter taps the jumpers on their calves and shouts “hit it!”

They’re out the door, one after another, tucked up as they count in their heads “one one-thousand, two one-thousand, three one-thousand, four." Their chutes open, they grab for the toggles to take control of their parachutes, look over their shoulders for the landing spot, and turn into the wind shouting to each another which side each guy is going to take.

Now they’re in full control and after the initial chaos of stepping out the door there is an eerie silence as they come down. The ground approaches and they prepare to land, feet together and faces into the wind, using the brakes a little to pinpoint the landing spot and avoid the trees in the area. They land with perfect rolls, release their chutes and let each other know they’re OK.

Wildland firefighters have been romanticized over the years by movies like “Red Skies of Montana,” and books like Norman Maclean’s “Young Men and Fire.” After spending some time with the wildland firefighting elite – the smokejumpers -- it’s easy to see why. The jumpers are based at seven Forest Service and two Bureau of Land Management locations, primarily in the Northern Rockies and Alaska. There are only 277 jumpers nationwide, said Mark Beighley, the Assistant Director of Planning and Budget for the Forest Service’s Fire and Aviation Management program in Washington D.C. The program is smaller than was at its peak in the1960’s, when there were about 200 jumpers at the Missoula base alone, but it’s been stable since the mid-1980’s.

Initiated during the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the program began training its first crews in June of 1940, with seven soon-to-be jumpers. The first training camp was just north of Seeley Lake, about 60 miles from Missoula. The first jump happened the following month when Earl Cooley and Rufus Robinson jumped the Marten Creek fire in the Nez Perce Forest July 12. Cooley, a Missoula resident, attends rookie smokejumper graduations to this day.

The great fires of 1910 were the first to influence governmental policy on fire suppression, when several towns and a great amount of timber were lost. As remote wilderness fires began to have more impact and the need for fire suppression grew, the government began looking for alternative ways to get into fires. The smokejumper program was developed to give added
options for initial attacks, when it might take days for engine or hot shot crews to reach them.

People clamored to become smokejumpers from the beginning. In fact, the first year brought in more than 100 applications. The 16 applicants who had fire experience made the initial cut, and of those just seven were trained to become the first smokejumpers.

As the amount of remote forest areas is shrinks, one would think the need for smokejumpers would be receding, but in fact they are proving to be as effective as ever for initial attack. Alice Forbes, the Director of Operations for the Forest Service at the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), explained that smokejumpers are actually finding themselves jumping into more urban-interface zones because, quite simply, they are the best firefighters around.

	The Smokejumper rookies board a DC-3 aircraft. When the siren goes off, the jumpers have to be suited up and boarded on the plane, ready to jump into a fire within a few minutes. Photo by Scott Poniewaz/New West

This year’s forest fire season has begun to reach Montana, but the recently graduated rookies from the Missoula training center have dispersed to their respective bases in Grangeville, Idaho, West Yellowstone, Mont. and of course, Missoula. While they are at their bases, they are assisting, or boosting jump bases around the country, including sub-bases in Miles City, Mont., and Silver City, Ariz. Missoula jumpers are sent across the country for work, and not always just to fight fires. Last year Canada requested boosters from Missoula for a British Columbia fire, the first time that has ever happened. Missoula jumpers also assisted on fire projects in Michigan and Mississippi. And because of their tree-climbing skills, one group did Asian Longhorned Beetle Surveys in Chicago and New Jersey.

With last year’s rather mild fire season in the Northern Rockies, the Missoula jumpers did more work than usual in other regions – total of 431 jumps nationwide, about average for the last 15 years. The Region 1 smokejumper budget is fixed at $15 million annually, and there are now about 80 jumpers based in Missoula, up from just 63 in 1999.

John Kovalicky, the rookie training coordinator at the Missoula base, continues to increase the depth of training to keep up with the increased demands of smokejumpers. This year’s rookie class was the first to have leadership training integrated, and also encountered an expanded variety of medical scenarios and new exercises included more equipment failure simulations and tree climbing.

Despite budget pressures and ongoing debate about the fire management and the appropriateness of fire suppression as a core strategy, the smokejumper program will continue to be on the front lines. “As long as we have multiple ignition days, the smokejumper program won’t go away,” Forbes said.

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