American History

Was sent to another area fire at the last minute. His stories were hair raising. Tough old coot, but he always got teary eyed when the Mann Gulch crew was mentioned. 'Survivor's guilt, I reckon' he would say, dabbing at his 'leaky eyes'. He had dropped into fires all over MT and Idaho over the years.

Said the 'national park boys' wanted him to go to California to help lead training and fire fighting units there, but being newly wed, he declined. Told me 'those guys in California are nuts! The vegetation there is so flammable that it can ignite just from heat of fire that hadn't actually reached it yet and those oily California plants would literally explode'.

He was the father of my brother's best friend, and part of our family. I thought of him a lot when the fires broke out in LA. Hoped his ornery old soul was watching over some of the firefighters there. We cannot do enough for the people who rush into those areas where others are told to leave.