Timely memoir explores history of extreme profession
While watching the coverage of the wildfires across the country and especially the Cameron Peak Fire here in Colorado, I came across this biography by Jason A. Ramos. I had heard of hotshot crews (because of the Granite Mountain crew in 2013) but not smokejumpers.
This book has two interesting aspects to it. One is the history of smokejumpers and how they relate to wildland fires. The other is the personal stor y of Ramos’ journey to becoming a smokejumper and his experiences fighting wildland fires. Both the historical, big picture and the personal perspective were interesting to see together.
The event that initiated the creation of smokejumpers was the Blackwater Fire in 1937 in Wyoming. Fifteen firefighters lost their lives in the fire and when it was all over officials decided that a faster response time could potentially save lives. So in 1939 in both Winthrop, Washington and in Montana in Moose Creek and Seeley Lake, smokejumper programs were being developed. In July of 1940, thirty-seven years after the first manned flight by the Wright Brothers, the first fire jump was successfully completed in the Nez Perce National Forest.
But just as the smokejumper program was getting off the ground, the United States was surprised by the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Suddenly the military and the smokejumpers were in competition with each other for young men, airplanes, silk for parachutes, and general funds.
This could have been the end of smokejumping but they were able to recruit some of the conscientious objectors, such as the Mennonites and Quakers. And then the Japanese turned firefighting into a matter of national security by releasing over 9,000 fusen bakudan, or balloon bombs, targeting the west coast of America over the course of about six months. Many consider these to be the first intercontinental weapons ever used. The balloons were found from Alaska to Mexico and as far east as Michigan.
While I had heard of the balloons used by the Japanese military during World War II, I had never thought of them in relation to firefighting history. The authors do a really good job of taking parts of history and putting them in the framework of firefighting.
Active smokejumpers typically number less than 500 per year and less than 6,000 smokejumpers have ever earned their wings in the 80plus years that the profession has existed. Smokejumping takes two extreme professions, firefighting and parachuting, and puts them together into one unusual job.
Ramos is not the typical smokejumper. At five foot six and 125 pounds he barely meets the minimum weight requirement for smokejumpers and as a Puerto Rican city boy from Los Angeles, he isn’t even the typical wildland firefighter. Ramos had already worked for the Riverside County Fire Depar tment, on the engine crew of the California Desert District with the Bureau of Land Management, the helitack crew with the National Forest Service before becoming interested in smokejumping. Ramos’ experience in boot camp and his journey to becoming an experienced smokejumper is interesting and he mixes in stories of other smokejumpers’ experiences.
As I write this review the sky is lit with an eerie orange sun due to the continuing wildfires from the Cameron Peak and Mullen fires in Colorado and Wyoming. It seems like every day there is a new story about wildfires in California. Perhaps Ramos’ prediction that more and larger wildfires would continue to rise seems to be coming true. Not only is the American West on fire, Australia’s brush fires began in 2019 and continued into the summer of 2020.
Some of the other places who have had record-breaking wildfire seasons have been the Arctic and the rainforests of Brazil. Since October is the traditional end of high caution for wildfires in most of America, hopefully most of the wildfires will end.
“Smokejumper: A Memoir by One of America’s Most Select Airborne Firefighters” by Jason A. Ramos and Julian Smith is available at the Sterling Public Librar y. Erica Kallsen is a Library Associate at Sterling Public Library.