SO YOU WANT TO BE A SMOKEJUMPER

Smokejumpers

So, you think you would like to be a smokejumper. It appears to be glamorous and exciting. In order to help you make your choice I offer from the West Yellowstone Outdoor Education Center's website the following information regarding the requirements for making it as a smokejumper.

1. You must be at least 18 years old.

2. You must not be more than 77 inches tall or less than 60 inches tall without shoes.

3. You must weigh at least 120 pounds but no more than 200 pounds without clothes.

4. You must not have acute or chronic disease of the external, middle, or inner ear. Using an audiometer for measurement, there should be no loss of 25 or more decibels in each year at the speech frequency range. A hearing aid is not permitted.

5. You must be free from acute or chronic eye disease. Corrected distant vision must test at least 20/20 (Snellen) in one eye and at least 20/30 (Snellen) in the other. Individuals must be able to read printed material the size of standard typewritten characters. Glasses or contacts used for correction are permitted

During your training. You will be taught aircraft exiting procedures, fire on the plateau parachute maneuvering and emergency procedures, parachute landing rolls, timber letdown procedures, parachute and cargo retrieval and tree climbing.

15 training jumps are conducted during the training period, beginning with jumps into the simplest terrain and progressing into more difficult terrain. Performance is continually evaluated during the training and those persons unable to perform up to the standard of proficiency required will be terminated from the program and placed in another job, if available.

So, does smoke jumping still appeal to you. If it does perhaps the fact that in order to be hired usually October through December all applicants must have specialized work experience including at least three continuous months of wildland fire suppression experience as a member of an organized fire suppression crew or comparable unit, in forest and range fire suppression work under mountainous terrain and fuel conditions such as those found in the Western United States.

If that's not enough to whet your appetite, according to the information that I got from the website rookies are hired at the GS – 5 level with a wage of about $12 an hour.

To say the very least, it takes a great deal of dedication desire and perseverance to even be accepted as a smoke jumper. Not quite as glamorous as it sounds is it.