Making a smokejumper p1 - Military Transition - Military Times EDGE

NORTH CASCADES SMOKEJUMPER BASE, WASH. — A Marine combat engineer on his first tour in Iraq, Nick MacKenzie was already planning life after the Corps when he picked up the dirty, dog-eared book that would change his life forever.

“It was a crummy, horrible romance novel, but I had no choice. There were only so many books circulating,” he says. He can’t even remember the name of that book anymore, but it quickly got his attention in ways much bigger than a simple wartime distraction.

“Two of the main characters were smokejumpers. I didn’t even know what smokejumpers were. I had never heard of them before.” And like in any good love story, he was smitten.

The fictional characters had very real jobs. The special forces of the U.S. Forest Service, smokejumpers work in small teams from a few scattered bases throughout the West. Their job: Parachute into forest fires too remote to reach by ground or helicopter.

And put them out. By hand. And then hike home.

“Needless to say, the thought of jumping out of an airplane into the middle of nowhere to fight fires with just a few bros, working hard and then taking off my shirt and hiking out sounded great.

“I decided right then and there that’s what I was going to be.”

Solid landings

With only about 400 smokejumper jobs split between nine Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management outposts, competition is stiff to get into the elite circle of blaze battlers. Like most wildfire-fighting gigs, the jobs are seasonal — through the six hottest months of the year — but pay well enough for many to take the winters off.

“They say the hardest part about smokejumping is getting hired,” MacKenzie said.

He got to work on landing the job right when he got back from Iraq. On leave from his unit in San Diego, he drove to the smokejumper base in Redding, Calif. Their advice: Don’t apply. Not yet, that is. According to the Forest Service, applicants must have at least one season of experience in traditional forest firefighting, but many veterans will tell jumper wannabes to earn their stripes a few seasons more. So, even as he was getting ready for his second tour downrange to Iraq, MacKenzie began the application process for a job down home on the range as a Forest Service grunt. By the time he got back and was on his way out of the Corps, he had a job waiting for him working on a Forest Service-green fire truck making about $10 an hour.

“They’re always hiring,” MacKenzie said. “Veterans especially are pretty much guaranteed a job.”

Hotshot

By next season, MacKenzie was on a “hotshot” crew, the shock troops of wildfire-fighting.

“I was on an interagency crew that fought fires in Minnesota, Georgia, California, Oregon — everywhere. We even did disaster relief in Florida.” It was exactly the kind of experience — and adventure — he was looking for. Indeed, the real upshot of hotshotting, MacKenzie said, is that “you’re always working in some of the most beautiful, pristine places in the world. Sometimes we’d get sent in by helicopter and there’d be no roads for miles. These are places where, maybe, no human being had ever walked before.”

Earning about $45,000 for six months’ work didn’t hurt, either.

Jumping in

Through it all, MacKenzie kept his eye on the ultimate goal. After three seasons as a hotshot, this year he decided he was ready to jump in. For the handful of smokejumping positions each year, hundreds will apply. As with most government jobs, veterans receive preference.

Getting selected is only the first step through the door, though. All applicants have to make it through rookie training, a kind of basic training and airborne school rolled into four to six weeks of blistering instruction. Each base trains its own rookies. The first day of training begins with a PT test — pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and a run — followed by two timed hikes carrying heavy gear.

“And that’s just the first morning. Then they smoke you the rest of the day,” MacKenzie said of his grueling four weeks at North Cascades Smokejumper Base, just outside Winthrop, Wash., where he now works. The training involves advanced firefighting skills needed to tackle wildfires with little support, plus honing the parachuting chops that allow smokejumpers to dive into the smallest of forest clearings. By the time he graduated in June, MacKenzie had 17 jumps, more than three times what most troops get in jump school.

“Rookie training was far more physically demanding than anything I ever did in the Marine Corps. Boot camp doesn’t even hold a torch to it.”

His class started with six. Four graduated. Making it, he says, is all about endurance — not brute strength.

“I always thought I was a fast runner in the Marine Corps, and then I got into the Forest Service. There are a lot of really fast people here. We run 40 miles a week.”

Off again, on again

While MacKenzie says there’s a lot to love about the job itself, there’s also a lot to love about the time off.

“The lifestyle this affords you with — six months off — is amazing.” After his first season with the Forest Service, MacKenzie spent most of the winter snowboarding and traveling off the money he’d earned. “I got 70 days on the hill that winter. That’s a lot of riding. Then I went to Europe for two months. That’s a good life.” The following off seasons he spent surfing in El Salvador and Costa Rica, diving in Honduras, and bouncing around Indonesia. “I’m like, ‘Bring it on.’ It’s a great life, if you aren’t a homebody.”

How to get picked

The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management employ smokejumpers. Basic requirements include:

•At least one year of specialized firefighting experience, including three continuous months of wildfire-fighting experience.

•Age: at least 18; height: from 5 feet to 6 feet, 5 inches; weight: 120-200 pounds.

•PT test: seven pull-ups/chin-ups, 45 sit-ups, 25 push-ups, 1.5-mile run in less than 11 minutes, three-mile hike within 45 minutes carrying a 45-pound pack, three-mile hike within 90 minutes carrying a 110-pound pack.

For more details on how to apply, visit the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management Web sites.