The National Smokejumper Association (NSA) is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

(

501(c)(3) A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

), American organization based in

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

, that preserves the history of aerial fire management, or

smokejumping Smokejumpers are specially trained wildland firefighters who provide an initial attack response on remote wildland fires. They are inserted at the site of the fire by parachute. In addition to performing the initial attack on wildfires, they ...

, through interviews, rosters, photographs, films, letters, reports and publications. It is also a meeting area for people involved with

wildland firefighting Wildfire suppression is a range of firefighting tactics used to suppress wildfires. Firefighting efforts in wild land areas require different techniques, equipment, and training from the more familiar structure fire fighting found in populated a ...

and helps in the preservation of national forests and grasslands. The first president of the NSA was Earl Cooley, one of the first smokejumpers for the

United States Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

.Martin, Douglas. "Earl Cooley Is Dead at 98; Fought Fires as Original Smoke Jumper." New York Times (2009) Web. 1 December 2010.
/ref> Cooley presided over the NSA from 1993 to 1995. Other past presidents of the NSA were Laird Robinson, Ed Courtney, Carl Gidlund, Larry Lufkin, Ron Stoleson and Doug Houston.Stoleson, Ron. 24 November 2010. Personal e-mail. 25 November 2010. The current president is Robert A. McKean. ">"National Smokejumper Association Board of Directors." Official Web Site. National Smokejumper Association, 2010. Web. 15 November 2010.
/ref>

History of smokejumping

Aerial Fire Patrols: The idea and implementation of smokejumping was a gradual process, starting with aerial fire patrols. In 1918,

Henry S. Graves Henry ("Harry") Solon Graves (May 3, 1871 – March 7, 1951) was a forester, forest administrator in the United States. He co-founded the Yale Forest School (now the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies) in 1900, the oldest continuous ...

, the Chief Forester for the

, contacted the Chief of the

Army Air Service The United States Army Air Service (USAAS)Craven and Cate Vol. 1, p. 9 (also known as the ''"Air Service"'', ''"U.S. Air Service"'' and before its legislative establishment in 1920, the ''"Air Service, United States Army"'') was the aerial war ...

to have aerial patrols over the western states to look for forest fires. This request was transferred to Col.

Henry "Hap" Arnold Henry Harley Arnold (June 25, 1886 – January 15, 1950) was an American general officer holding the ranks of General of the Army and later, General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps (1938–1941), ...

, head of the Western Department of the Air Service. Arnold loaned aircraft to the Forest Service to create aerial patrols, and by 1925, there were aerial patrols in western Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington. Two

Airco DH.4 The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited (Airco) was an early British aircraft manufacturer. Established during 1912, it grew rapidly during the First World War, referring to itself as the largest aircraft company in the world by 1918. Air ...

aircraft, based in Spokane, Wash., flew on these patrols, piloted by

Nick Mamer Nicholas Bernard Mamer (1897 – January 10, 1938) was a noted American aviation pioneer and pilot in the Pacific Northwest during the 1920s and 1930s. Early career Mamer learned to fly in San Diego and served with the Aviation Section, U.S. ...

and R.T. Freng.">"Aerial Patrols." Official Web Site. National Smokejumper Association, 2010. Web. 25 November 2010.
/ref> The Winthrop Experiments: In 1939, David P. Godwin, Assistant Chief of Fire Control in Washington, D.C., recommended that the Aerial Experimental Project in Northern Pacific Region try some parachute jumping experiments. The Forest Service made a contract to prepare for the jumps, providing parachutes, protective clothing and assistance from professional riggers and parachutists. The experiments were conducted in the

Chelan National Forest Chelan National Forest was established in Washington by the U.S. Forest Service on July 1, 1908 with from a portion of Washington National Forest. On July 1, 1921 it absorbed the first Okanogan National Forest Okanogan (US) or Okanagan (Canada) m ...

, near Winthrop, Wash. During the experimental course, two Winthrop citizens under contract, five Forest Service personnel and 60 Eagle Parachute Company personnel parachuted from aircraft into Chelan National Forest at heights between 2,000 and 6,000 feet. No one was seriously injured during these experiments.">"The Winthrop Experiments." Official Web Site. National Smokejumper Association, 2010. Web. 26 November 2010.
/ref> Training and Implementation: Smokejumper training was focused in the Forest Service's Region 1 (Montana, Idaho and eastern Washington) and Region 6 (North Pacific Region). Region 1 selected six applicants who had firefighting experience, including Earl Cooley. Region 6 selected individuals who had jumped during the 1939 Winthrop experiments. The first jump for Region 1 was at Marten Creek in the

Nez Perce National Forest The Nez Perce National Forest is a United States National Forest located in west-central Idaho. The forest is bounded on the east by the state of Montana, on the north by the Clearwater National Forest, on the west by a portion of the Wallowa– ...

on July 12, 1940. The first jump for Region 6 was at Bridge Creek in the Chelan National Forest on August 10 of that year. Some injuries occurred during the training sessions and aerial firefighting jumps, including bruising and a tailbone injury. Region 6 smokejumper Dick Tuttle was unable to participate in the 1940 fire season because of injuries sustained after falling from a tree.">"Training." Official Web Site. National Smokejumper Association, 2010. Web. 26 November 2010.
/ref> During the first smokejumper rescue mission on July 15, 1940, smokejumper Chet Derry parachuted into an area south of Moose Creek Ranger Station in Idaho. A cargo plane had clipped a tree and cartwheeled into a shallow lake, killing the pilot and seriously injuring the cargo kicker."The First Jumps." Official Web Site. National Smokejumper Association, 2010. Web. 26 November 2010.
/ref>

Smokejumper history program

The smokejumper history program is a collection that includes more than 250 video interviews with early smokejumpers, thousands of scanned and original photographs, and thousands of historical documents pertaining to smokejumping. This collection is preserved at the University of Montana's

Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library is the campus library at the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. Completed in 1978 on the east side of campus, the five-story library was funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce. In 1979, it was ...

. The NSA has a database of all known smokejumpers and created the first list of smokejumpers killed in action. The NSA is looking into options for cataloguing, storing and displaying historical artifacts.

Mission Statement and values

The official Mission Statement and values of the NSA as of July 1, 2009: "The National Smokejumper Association, through a cadre of volunteers and partnerships,is dedicated to preserving the history and lore of smoke jumping (sic), maintaining and restoring our nation's forest and grassland resources, responding to special needs of smokejumpers and their families and advocating for the programs (sic) evolution." "The values of the NSA are comradeship, education, pride in work well done and loyalty."">"Mission and Values." Official Web Site. National Smokejumper Association, 2010. Web. 25 November 2010.
/ref>

Trails Program

The National Smokejumper Association's Trails Program was founded in 1999 by former treasurer Jon McBride and former smokejumper Art Jukkala to field volunteer crews to clear trails, fix historical structures and build corrals and fences. McBride and Jukkala formed this group to help the Forest Service with trail maintenance, because it had cut back on it due to budget constraints. When Jukkala died of a heart attack during the program's first project that year, McBride became sole director of the Trails Program. Under McBride's leadership, the program expanded from two nine-man crews to 318 one-week crews by the time of his death on June 2, 2010. In 2010, 197 Trails Program volunteers completed 24 projects in six states. Areas with trails opened and maintained by this group included the

Boundary Waters The Boundary Waters, also called the Quetico-Superior Country, is a region of wilderness straddling the Canada–United States border between Ontario and Minnesota, in the area just west of Lake Superior. While "Boundary Waters" is a common name ...

, High Sierra,

Iditarod Trail The Iditarod Trail, also known historically as the Seward-to-Nome Trail, is a thousand-plus mile (1,600 km) historic and contemporary trail system in the US state of Alaska. The trail began as a composite of trails established by Alaskan ...

and

Bob Marshall Wilderness The Bob Marshall Wilderness Area is a congressionally-designated wilderness area located in Western Montana region of the United States. It is named after Bob Marshall (1901–1939), an early forester in the federal government, conservationist, a ...

. The Trails Program hopes to add West Virginia to their list of project states by 2011.

Scholarships

The NSA supports three scholarship programs. The first is the Art Jukkala Scholarship Program, which was named after a former smokejumper who died of a heart attack during a Trails Program project. This program awards scholarships to the children of smokejumpers who were killed in action. Four scholarships have been awarded, totaling $10,000. A second program is the NSA Trail Maintenance Smokejumper Chair Scholarship Fund, which provides a yearly scholarship to a smokejumper or child of a smokejumper who is studying forestry at the

University of Montana The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fal ...

. An NSA Scholarship program is going to start in 2011. This program will give $2,000 annually to smokejumpers or family members pursuing higher education at the trade school or college level.

Good Samaritan Fund

The Good Samaritan Fund was created to financially aid smokejumpers, smokejumper pilots and their families. The NSA has donated over $6,000 since the fund's inception.

Presidents of the NSA

1. Earl Cooley (1993–1995): Earl Cooley was one of the first two men in history to parachute from an airplane to fight a fire, which was at the Nez Perce National Forest on July 12, 1940. He trained smokejumpers in Montana during the 1940s, many of whom were conscientious objectors of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.
On August 5, 1949, Cooley picked the spots for smokejumpers to land during the

Mann Gulch fire The Mann Gulch fire was a wildfire reported on August 5, 1949, in a gulch located along the upper Missouri River in the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness (then known as the Gates of the Mountains Wild Area), Helena National Forest, in the U.S. st ...

. A wind shift resulted in 13 deaths, including 12 smokejumpers, the most smokejumper fatalities during one job. An investigation cleared Cooley and a foreman who had helped him pick the landing spots of misfeasance.
Cooley said he was never afraid of jumping out of a plane and the only thing he didn't enjoy about smokejumping was the walk home. By the time he died on November 9, 2009, Cooley had jumped almost 50 times.">Thursby, Keith. "One year ago: Earl Cooley." Los Angeles Times 9 November 2010. Web. 27 November 2010.
/ref> 2. Ed Courtney (1995–1997): Ed Courtney was a smokejumper based in Missoula, Mont., in 1958. Courtney became the principal of Missoula's Lowell School from 1991–1993 and taught seventh and eighth grade at Russell School. In 1993, Courtney went to work at the Missoula Public Schools Administration Building, where he stayed until his retirement. 3. Laird Robinson (1997–1999): Laird Robinson was a smokejumper in Montana for the Forest Service for over 10 years.Block, Melissa. "Remembering A Pioneering Smoke Jumper." National Public Radio 12 November 2009. Web. 26 November 2010. https://www.npr.org/2009/11/12/120360659/remembering-a-pioneering-smoke-jumper
/ref> He began his smokejumping career at the

Flathead National Forest The Flathead National Forest is a national forest in the western part of the U.S. state of Montana. The forest lies primarily in Flathead County, south of Glacier National Park. The forest covers of which about is designated wilderness. It i ...

from 1961–1967, then for the

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

from 1967-1971. After smokejumping, Robinson became the regional office public outreach coordinator for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Recovery Program, which was a collaboration between multiple government agencies to ensure the recovery of grizzly bear populations in areas such as the Bitterroot Ecosystem,

and

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...

.">"CHAPTER V: Consultation and Coordination in Development of the Proposal." Web. 25 November 2010.
/ref> Robinson retired May 2, 2004, after 35 years with the Forest Service.">"Retirements." Northern Region News 2004: 22. Web. 26 November 2010.
/ref>
Robinson helped University of Chicago professor Norman Maclean find sources for ''

Young Men and Fire ''Young Men and Fire'' is a 1992 non-fiction book written by Norman Maclean. It is an account of Norman Maclean's research of the Mann Gulch fire of 1949 and the 13 men who died there. The fire occurred in Mann Gulch in the Gates of the Mountain ...

'', Maclean's 1992 book on the

.">Briggeman, Kim. "Missoula aeronautical engineer recounts helping Maclean understand Mann Gulch fire." Missoulian 15 April 2010: n. pag. Web. 26 November 2010.
/ref> 4. Carl Gidlund (1999–2001): Carl Gidlund obtained his master's degree in journalism from the

in 1967 and then joined the Forest Service, where he became a smokejumper for five years. He also served in the Special Forces during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. After smokejumping, Gidlund became a public affairs officer for the Idaho Panhandle National Forests. Gidlund retired to Hayden Lake, Idaho, in 2001, where he writes columns in the ''Spokesman-Review'', and writes and edits for ''Smokejumper Magazine''.">"Class notes." University of Montana 2001. Web. 28 November 2010.
/ref> During Gidlund's tenure as NSA president in 1999, he said he was convinced by former treasurer Jon McBride and former smokejumper Art Jukkala to help create the Trails Program. 5. Larry Lufkin (2001–2003): Larry Lufkin was a smokejumper at Siskiyou Smokejumper Base, Ore., from 1963–1967 and 1969-1971. During the break in his smokejumping career, Lufkin joined the Army and served in the

101st Airborne Division The 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) ("Screaming Eagles") is a light infantry division of the United States Army that specializes in air assault operations. It can plan, coordinate, and execute multiple battalion-size air assault operati ...

in the Vietnam War. After he earned a degree in accounting from

Washington State University Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...

in 1971, Lufkin worked as a field auditor for the Office of Inspector General at the Department of Health and Human Services. In 1981, Lufkin transferred to the Office of Child Support Enforcement, where he worked as the Area Audit Office Supervisor until his retirement in 2000.National Smokejumper Association. Smokejumpers. Turner Publishing Company, 2003.
/ref>
Lufkin's father, Francis Lufkin, was one of the first people to jump from a plane during the Aerial Experimental Project in 1939. He was also one of the first two people to jump into Region 6 (North Pacific Region), to fight a fire at

. 6. Roland "Ron" Stoleson (2003–2005): Ron Stoleson was a smokejumper based in Missoula, starting in 1956. Stoleson was Forest Supervisor of the

Sawtooth National Forest Sawtooth National Forest is a United States National Forest, National Forest that covers 2,110,408 acres (854,052 ha) in the U.S. states of Idaho (~96 percent) and Utah (~4 percent). Managed by the U.S. Forest Service in the United States Depart ...

from 1982-1991. He retired in 2000, after 42 years in the Forest Service. After his retirement, Stoleson led crews for the Trails Program to help maintain trails and other natural and historical resources.National Smokejumper Association: Trail Maintenance Special Report 2003
/ref>
Stoleson is the only living survivor of a 1959 accident, in which a Ford Tri-Motor plane crashed into gasoline barrels while landing at the Moose Creek airstrip. He was in the plane at the time. The crash killed 10 people, including two smokejumpers and the Nez Perce Forest supervisor. Stoleson escaped from the plane, but was burned on the face and arms during the incident.
/ref> 7. Doug Houston (2005–2009): Doug Houston was a smokejumper for 28 years. The first 17 years, he was stationed in Redmond, Ore. The next 11 were spent as the smokejumper base manager for the North Cascades Smokejumper base in Winthrop, Wash. Houston is currently an instructor for Mission-Centered Solutions in Parker, Colo. 8. John Twiss (2009–present): John Twiss began working as a seasonal employee for the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...

in 1965. After working as a seasonal, Twiss became a Forest Service smokejumper for nine years, based out of Redmond, Ore. from 1967-1976.Twiss, John. 30 November 2010. Personal e-mail. 1 December 2010. When he was done with smokejumping, Twiss worked as a District Ranger in Idaho and Oregon; Deputy Forest Supervisor in Minnesota; National Wilderness Leader in Washington, D.C.; and the Forest Supervisor of the

Black Hills National Forest Black Hills National Forest is located in southwestern South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming, United States. The forest has an area of over 1.25 million acres (5,066 km²) and is managed by the Forest Service. Forest headquarters are located ...

. In July 2005, Twiss became director of law enforcement and investigations for the Forest Service.">"An Interview with the Director of Law Enforcement and Investigations." FS Today 5 Sept. 2008. Web. 25 November 2010.
/ref> He retired November 2008, after a 40-year career with the Forest Service.

Election process

Elections for the NSA Board of Directors are held annually. Usually, there is only one candidate up for each position, so they are elected by vote of the directors. The NSA has two classes of voting members—smokejumpers and smokejumper pilots. Associate members don't vote in the elections.

References

External links

*
California Smokejumpers

Smokejumping in Missoula, Mont.

National Smokejumper Association Records
(University of Montana Archives)
Nick Sundt Smokejumpers Oral History Project
(University of Montana Archives)
Smokejumpers 1984 Reunion Oral History Project
(University of Montana Archives)
Civilian Public Service Smokejumpers Oral History Project
(University of Montana Archives)
Smokejumper Digital Archive
(Eastern Washington University) {{authority control Aerial firefighting Archives in the United States Firefighting in the United States Nature conservation organizations based in the United States Non-profit organizations based in Montana Organizations based in Missoula, Montana Organizations established in 1992 Parachuting in the United States Parachuting organizations United States Forest Service firefighting Wildfire suppression