Smokejumpers Return from D.C. 1949 – Barely a month later one of them died at Mann Gulch
Smokejumpers return from trip to D.C. 1949 – one of them died at Mann Gulch
Jumpers Return From Trip
“It was an entirely successful operation,” local forest service smoke jumpers said Saturday on their return from Washington, D. C., where they demonstrated serial fire control operations for businessmen and federal officials.
“The weather didn’t co-operate too much,” James V. Waite, assistant supervisor of region No. 1 parachute training, said, “but all the jumpers came close to the target, an orange cross on an oval between the White House and the Washington monument. They had difficulty with wind with gusts up to 18 miles per hour and a low ceiling.
“After they landed, they were taken, still in their jumping regalia, through downtown Washington to the National Press club where they presented tokens of appreciation to six businessmen for backing fire-control measures.” They met Secretary of Agriculture Brannan and Chief Forester Lyle Watts (a former Missoula resident, who is to return soon for a visit).
The group left Missoula in a Johnson Flying service trimotor plane June 24 and made the jumps at about 1 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. The return trip was started Thursday and the group arrived in Missoula at 9 p.m. Friday after an overnight stop at LaFayette, Ind.
Mr. Waite said the operation was accorded considerable publicity in the east; the men had their pictures on the front page of the New York Herald Tribune and in two Washington papers, the Evening Star and the Washington Post.
On the mission besides Mr. Waite were jumpers William J. Hellman, Homer W. Stratton, William D. Dratz and Edward J. Eggen and Robert R. (Bob) Johnson, pilot; Albert W. Cramer, spotter; Robert M. Catlin, photographer, and John Carls, mechanic.
The above article appeared in The Sunday Missoulian on July 3, 1949.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349327466/
Sadly, 24-year-old William “Bill” Hellman was burned to death in the Mann Gulch fire later that year, in August of 1949. He was one of 12 smokejumpers who perished while attempting to fight that fire. Although he was found alive and was able to ask that his wife be notified that he was OK, he died a few hours later.
The plane that delivered the smokejumpers to the Mann Gulch fire is the same plane that is currently being featured in D-day ceremonies slated for France this summer in June. Now nicknamed, Miss Montana, this plane is a C-47, DC-3, registration #NC24320, and has recently been refurbished at the Museum of Mountain Flying Hangar at the Missoula airport.