This collection interviews details the work of smokejumpers and support personnel, who recount their firefighting and smokejumping experiences throughout the northwest United States. The interviewees discuss smokejumper training, fire and rescue jumps, and the changes in equipment and policies from the program’s early days in the 1940s until the 1980s. They also talk about the conscientious objectors who served as smokejumpers during World War Two, as well as women and other minorities who worked as smokejumpers during the mid-20th century.
The interviews were conducted during 1984 and 1985, many of them during a 1984 reunion in Missoula, Montana, by Jim Norgaard, Kim Taylor, Kim Maynard, Sandra Carroll, Kathy Root, Dan Hall, Beverly Buckner, Susan Green, Roxanne Farwall, Renée Gouaux, Floyd Cowles, John Harper, and James Stephens. The project funded by a grant from the Montana Committee for the Humanities and the U.S. Forest Service History Office. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 133 at the Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
This collection includes 116 interviews.
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Thomas Emonds Interview, July 2, 1984
Thomas Emonds
Thomas Emonds relates his experiences as a smokejumper from 1966 to 1984. He talks about resuming smokejumping after his tour of duty in Vietnam ended and the changes that had occurred at the Cave Junction, Oregon base during his absence. He describes management problems at ... Read More
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Virgil Derry Interview, July 20, 1984
Virgil Derry
Virgil Derry discusses his early involvement with parachuting and testing equipment later used by smokejumpers. He describes the experimental jumps he made with his brother, Frank Derry, in 1939 for Eagle Parachute Company to determine the feasibility of dropping smokejumpers on fires. Derry talks about ... Read More
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Wallace D. "Wally" Henderson, July 21, 1984
Wallace D. Henderson
Wallace Henderson talks the two years he worked as a smokejumper from 1946 to 1947. He discusses training at the Nine Mile Ranger Station in Montana and jumping out of McCall, Idaho, and Missoula, Montana. Henderson reminisces about some of his fellow smokejumpers, which included ... Read More
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Watson W. "Java" Bradley Interview, July 22, 1984
Watson "Java" Bradley
Watson “Java” Bradley talks about being the first Navajo smokejumper based out of Missoula, Montana, from 1974 to 1977. Bradley describes his training, particularly the physically challenging aspects of it. He speaks of the pride he felt in being a smokejumper and the camaraderie on ... Read More
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Wayne R. Webb Interview, July 22, 1984
Wayne Webb
Wayne Webb speaks about his 30 years working as a smokejumper at McCall, Idaho, from 1946 until 1975. In particular, he emphasizes his job in equipment design, making parachutes and jump suits. Webb also discusses the 40-year age limit and what it was like to ... Read More
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Wendy Kamm Interview, November 30, 1984
Wendy Kamm
Wendy Kamm discusses being one of the first three women smokejumpers at the Missoula, Montana base in 1982. She describes the training and the injuries she sustained, and compares fighting fires in Alaska to Montana. Kamm talks about the psychological and emotional harassment by male ... Read More
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William "Bill" Woolworth Interview, July 22, 1984
William Woolworth
William Woolworth relates anecdotes from his experiences smokejumping from 1968 until 1979 in Montana, Idaho, and Alaska. He talks about the different firefighting techniques used in different climates, as well as the facilities at numerous smokejumper bases. Woolworth also discusses the impact smokejumping had on ... Read More
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William Bolen Interview, July 21, 1984
William Bolen
William Bolen describes being one of the first smokejumpers in Montana in 1940. He talks about being chosen from the Kootenai National Forest, where he was working as a smoke chaser, and coming to Seeley Lake with seven other men to start the smokejumper program. ... Read More
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William C. Brennan Interview, June 26, 1984
William C. Brennan
William C. Brennan talks about his time as a smokejumper in 1951 to 1952 and 1954. He discusses training at the Nine Mile Ranger Station in Montana, which involved learning skills like woodsmanship as well as physical fitness exercises. Brennan describes fighting fires, including the ... Read More
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William C. Wood Interview, July 20, 1984
William C. Wood
William Wood recalls working as a smokejumper in Missoula, Montana, from 1943 until 1960. He talks about being classified as 4-F and working with the conscientious objectors during World War Two, primarily as a spotter. Wood also comments on the shift to military veterans as ... Read More
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William D. Dratz Interview, June 28, 1984
William D. Dratz
William Dratz discusses working as a smokejumper from 1946 to 1949. He describes the type of people that were attracted to the profession, the procedures, the 1949 jump in Washington, D.C. and the 1949 Mann Gulch fire. He compares the policies of the smokejumper program ... Read More
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William F. "Bill" Mitchell, July 21, 1984
William F. Mitchell
William Mitchell recalls the two seasons he worked as a smokejumper in 1947 and 1948. He describes training at the Nine Mile Ranger Station in Montana, the equipment he used, and the project work in which he participated. He also talks about his temporary duty ... Read More
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William L. Ward Interview, July 22, 1984
William L. Ward
William Ward talks about his experiences smokejumping in Montana, Alaska, and New Mexico from 1963 to 1972. He describes the differences and similarities between jumping and firefighting in Montana and Alaska. Ward also talks about the feeling of camaraderie he experienced as a jumper and ... Read More
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William Yensen Interview, July 22, 1984
William Yensen
William Yensen relates anecdotes of smokejumping from 1953 to 1984 at McCall, Idaho. He talks about his training and the duties of a rigger, and he describes several fire jumps in detail, including various injuries he and others sustained.
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William Z. MacDonald Interview, July 9, 1984
William Z. MacDonald
William MacDonald discusses his time working as a smokejumper. He talks about the fires, project work, and procedures for going to and coming back from a fire. MacDonald discusses the changes that occurred in the organization from his first stint in 1953 to his second ... Read More
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Wilmer "Bill" Carlsen Interview, August 29, 1984
Wilmer Carlsen
Wilmer Carlsen discusses joining the smokejumpers under the Civilian Public Service program (CPS) in 1943 because he was a conscientious objector during World War Two. He describes his experiences as a smokejumper, including the fires he worked, and his relationships with regular Forest Service employees, ... Read More