This collection includes interviews detailing the experiences of World War Two conscientious objectors who served as smokejumpers and trained at Seeley Lake, Montana. The interviews were conducted in 1986 by Kim Taylor, Rosa Stone, Gregg Phifer, Ted Lewis, and Roxanne Farwell during a smokejumper reunion at Seeley Lake. The interviewees discuss why they chose to be conscientious objectors, their smokejumper training, daily life in the camp, specific fires they fought, and developing an appreciation for wilderness. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 163 at Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
This collection includes 32 interviews.
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Sheldon Mills Interview, August 11, 1986
Sheldon Mills
Sheldon Mills discusses his decision to become a conscientious objector and to volunteer as a smokejumper during World War Two. He describes the difficulty he had obtaining 4-E status and, later, his conscientious objector [CO] status because he was a Methodist. He relates coming to ... Read More
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Tom Summers Interview, August 12, 1986
Tom Summers
Tom Summers describes his experience as a smokejumper at McCall, Idaho, during the summer of 1945. He talks about getting the 4-E classification without a religious background, and about his time in Coleville, California, before moving on to smokejumping. He describes his training at Ninemile, ... Read More
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T. Richard "Dick" Flaharty Interview, August 11, 1986
T. Richard Flaharty
T. Richard Flaharty describes his experiences as a smokejumper at Ninemile, Montana, during the summer of 1944. He explains how he volunteered for the smokejumpers after feeling that his work at a soil conservation camp was not nationally important. He talks about his training, including ... Read More
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Walter Reimer Interview, August 1986
Walter Reimer
Walter Reimer discusses how his Mennonite faith influenced him to apply for a 4-E classification. He mentions his time at the Weeping Water, Nebraska, Lapine, Oregon, and Three Rivers, California CPS camps working on soil conservation and telephone connectivity projects. He then talks about his ... Read More
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Willard Handrich Interview, August 12, 1986
Willard Handrich
Willard Handrich discusses his Mennonite religious background, and his experience applying for 4-E status. He explains how he learned of smokjumping in the CPS, and why he chose to volunteer. Handrich describes smokejumper training in Ninemile, Montana, and recalls his most eventful jumps. He recalls ... Read More
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William P. Weber Interview, August 11, 1986
William P. Weber
William “Bill” Weber discusses his time with the smokejumpers and how that experienced shaped the rest of his career. He talks about his Methodist background, and about how he and his family reached out to the Quaker community in order to secure his 4-E classification ... Read More
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Winton Stucky Interview, August 11, 1986
Winton Stucky
Winton Stucky describes his experiences as a smokejumper in 1943. He talks about injuring his back during a training jump toward the end of the fire season and being discharged, and about how the injury impacted his quality of life for the next 29 years. ... Read More