14" x 18" prints start @ $17.50. Set of four artcards only $7.50





"IN THE DOOR" This painting was a retirement gift for Bill Moody in 1989.
1989 was also NCSB's 50th anniversary as the birthplace of Smokejumping


"ON THE GROUND" I painted this one after getting busted up in 1987 (wearing a cast on my leg).



JUMPER ART CARDS only $7.50 per set of four



100% COTTON T's $13.

"Boots" logo on front, "On the Ground" on back.


Visited times.

My short lived jumping career began when my District position in fuels was axed due to imaginary budget cuts. Thankfully my brother in law at the time was Bob Brownlee, a Squadleader on the base. With his recommendation I managed to secure a rookie slot at the Birthplace of Smokejumping.

Our rookie class was about 40 folks, 10 NCSB and a mix of Redding and Redmond recruits. The high desert of Redmond was a great place to spend a month trying to make the grade as a jumper. The morning began with an alphabetical line up and weigh in. As we began doing our mandatory pull ups, this guy in front of me named Herrera asked me if I would keep his place in line while he went to the can. I noticed that he was alittle overweight and had noodle arms. Never saw him again. The trainers kept calling out his name all day.

The rookie experience was everything I expected and more. It prepared me for that first leap. When it finally came, I wrote home saying that jumping out of perfectly good airplanes was better than sex! All of the NCSB folks made it and the bond of rookie brotherhood was formed. We swaggered back to Winthrop thinking we were smokejumpers. Yeah right!

It only took a week or so to move to the top of the jump list, and that night we got pounded with lightning. I could barely sleep. We got rousted out of the bunkhouse at first light and suited up. Didn't even get to hear the wail of the siren for my first fire jump! It was a clear cool morning. The air was dense and the winds were light. It was a cake jump with a spot big enough to land the otter in. After a short hike Pont and I reached our fire. A 20' diameter spot with very little active flame. We lined and potato patched it in short order, then took a brake. I asked Pont if we were ready for demob and he just grinned at me. He took his gloves off and dropped to his knees. We cold trailed every inch of that fire, until it was stone cold. Kinda made the six hour watch obsolete!

What a summer! Lots of fires and good memories. I have to tell you my favorite jump story. It involves a grizzly bear of a man named Steve Reynaud. We all called him Dad. Steve was the base Foreman and had hundreds of fire jumps. All of the rooks loved and respected him, he was a great guy. He was first on the list and I was second. Our base Manager Bill Moody was spotting. If you don't know who Bill is, then you're not a jumper! The fire was a sleeper on the top of Granite Mountain. It was a beautiful morning jump with perfect weather. Bill pointed to a small helispot on the top of the rugged peak. Steve asked me if I wanted to go first, so I'd have more room to get into the tight area. I agreed. Bill kicked us out right over the spot because there was no wind. I just spiraled in and looked up to see how Reynaud was doing. He was out to lunch and ran in hot, landing butt first on a big rock right in front of me. I asked him what the problem was, and he said that I needed alot of room being a rookie and all. So we got the fire out and were back home early enough to catch dinner at the messhall. I sat with the Rooks, and Steve sat with the Old Men. He had his back to me and didn't see me come in. I could clearly hear him telling the boys what really happened. He forgot to tighten his butt straps, and when his chute deployed he slid so far down in his jump suit that he couldn't see. In the meantime while fumbling for his zipper, he was sailing off in the wrong direction! By the time he got it unzipped far enough to see out, he had to run like hell to get back to the spot! I got up and went over to the Old Men's table and thanked him for the extra room. We all had a good laugh over that one!

My last story isn't so funny. We were down as a booster crew for Redmond and had a mixed load. Four NCSB boys in front with four RDM fellas in back. Reynaud was in the door. The fire was in the Mountain Lakes Wilderness west of Klamath Falls. It was butt ugly. The jump spot was a small bench on top of a cliff. It was ringed by old growth Douglas fir and snags. Six sets of streamers were thrown before Steve agreed to jump it. The first two were gone and Chris Paul and I were next. At that point my pucker factor was at maximum. As the old saying goes, you couldn't drive a needle up my arse with a sledgehammer! I probably had my eyes closed when the spotter gave me the slap. Anyway, after opening I faced the wind and sized up the situation. It sucked. Pointed to the wind the chute was racing backwards too darn fast, but not fast enough to get me into the spot. I pulled a turn to run in, hoping to hook it. Was almost there and tried to crank a turn back into the wind. A shear caught me and I slammed into the bole of a big old Doug about 20' off the ground. My right leg took the full impact. I woke up awhile later and tried to stand up, then fell over in pain. It took awhile for the boys to find me. The ship dropped the rest of the load about a mile down the hill where a helispot for evac could be constructed. Six guys packed me in a clamshell almost a mile just to get me out of there. I remember apologizing alot, because it about killed those guys. At some point we passed where Reynaud had "snagged up". His chute was up seventy feet or so, plastered against the side of this huge larch snag. Just that moment the wind quit and Steve's chute drifted to the ground. Unknown to me at the time, my life as a Jumper was over. The thirty seventh jump would be my last....

Life on base was pretty easy for me after Moody found that I had some artistic abilities. He did more for my art career than I ever attempted to. He always had a neat project for me lined up. Alot of my work is still there. The Boys have sold thousands of my T shirt designs over the years. When the Standard Orders were revised, Bill took me to Boise with him as the project artist and give the viewpoint of the fireline grunt. Most of my Jumper paintings were done the year after I was injured. "On the Ground" was painted for John Button while I still was wearing my cast...