Up until 1980 I never knew what a smoke jumper was. When most of my military friends were heading to Rhodesia, I began working o an aviation contract based out of Thailand. I got the job through some connections my oldest brother and cousin had after they had both worked for Air America in Laos. Anyway, on the contract were several BLM and USFS smokejumpers, and a few parachute riggers from the Laos and Thai army. I myself was a qualified paratrooper, Pathfinder and helicopter sling load specialist. My overall specialty was landing zone(LZ), Pick up zone (PZ) operations - Basically all Army pathfinder operations. If you don't know what an Army pathfinder is give it a google. As a result of working on this contract I met the "Smokies" and learned about them. I had considered becoming a smoke jumper but the waiting list was years long and the other requirements were difficult and required the time I didn't care to spend.
Myself and the "Smokies" in addition to the Thai and Laotian Riggers, Trained people in Parachuting, rigged heavy drop pallets, dropped loads and generally had a good time. It was hard work but the adventure of it made up for that. And, of course , I was young and strong so the hard work didn't bother me. I stayed in SE Asia for 4 years, then moved on to contracts in Central America, and Colombia doing basically the same thing. I laid low in the contract world for several years until 911, then embarked on another 11 years "Down range" as a military contractor (PMC) working mainly in weapons maintenance, Armed security and Aviation life support.
Tomahawk - out!
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