Limey Smokejumper: Fighting Wildfire in the Rockies - Softcover

9781480129252: Limey Smokejumper: Fighting Wildfire in the Rockies
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Smokejumpers have over the years been the subject of much media attention, from National Geographic to Playboy to some ridiculous movies. The results in each only portray one side; fire. There is a lot more to becoming a smokejumper, however, and a lot more to staying one. Not only physically, financially, from getting laid-off every year, but from withstanding the constant barrage of a burdensome bureaucracy. This is not a sensationalized account. This is real, warts and all. Because of that, you may very well not like it. The primary star in this world, though, is not the jumper or the fire, but the land on which both live, work and thrive; the wonderful Rocky Mountains. It is inherently human that those stalwarts of yesteryear brag about their work being harder and they being tougher than anything comparable today. In the case of smokejumping, at least, this statement appears to be more true than most. Early smokejumper equipment demanded uncommon rigors in the face of an uncertainty that today’s jumpers are thankfully not accustomed. However, all jumpers still maintain an athletic level of fitness to do any job assigned, at anytime — and do so with unselfish vigor not because of the government, but in spite of it.

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From the Author:
Limey Smokejumper is a raw account, and is written in the same raw style. It has not been professionally proofed, tweaked or cleaned, except for some minor edits, suggestions from another old smokejumper friend - you know who you are. It is, at times, as raw as a firefighter's bare fingers digging in the dirt to find that last elusive hotspot. It is as many of us saw it, as we lived it. Others sometimes saw something different; in the same battle but with a different perspective and appreciation of events - a perspective often born from the security of retirement that some never get to see, and for having done nothing less. Life is fortune and fate, and we live the cards we are dealt. Meanwhile enjoying the simple glory of having that first cup of coffee and watching the sun rise, once again, over the mountains in the distance, before we do it all over again.
From the Inside Flap:
It's a paperback, there is no 'inside flap.' But if there were, this would be the copy:
First of all, without question and to this day, I still consider smokejumping to be the best job in the world. All those fortunate to have done it, currently doing it, or doing it in the future are, indeed, some of the luckiest humans. The problem with having such an immensely satisfying, worthwhile, stimulating and adventurist job, however, is the inevitable balance that must, according to the Law of Administrative and Managerial Bullshit (LAMB), be paid by those on the fireline, at the warm and toasty end, to compensate for all those rousing complimentary adjectives. It is a law much like gravity, designed to bring even the hardiest of souls crashing to earth with frequent regularity, just like a jumper seeing his canopy torn to shreds above his head.
But what is smokejumping? In German it roughly translates to Feuerspringer; fire jumper, which is basically what smokejumping is. That does not, however, make it a circus act, as some German friends once assumed it to mean while visiting them in Cologne. "Robert doesn't look like a circus performer," they said, being a relief to me since I've never much liked circuses. They thought we jumped through rings of fire, on bikes perhaps, in tight pants or leotards, next to elephants under a big tent maybe, who knows? The thought alone is quite uncomfortable. In reality, though, smokejumping is a national wildland firefighting resource. Its primary purpose being to deliver personnel and equipment to remote wildfires quickly and effectively using a fleet of fixed-wing aircraft and parachutes. We jump fires. Not circus hoops.

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