Flying the "Friendly Skies"

I worked my first two fire seasons strictly servicing and loading the various aircraft that came in and out during the fire busts. In 1991, I was promoted to "flying status." In a rotation with 4 other workmates, I would be a Loadmaster on our contract 737, owned and operated by Sierra Pacific, and contracted to the BLM during the fire seasons.

When a sizeable fire broke out somewhere, the airplane would fly into some state that had "ready fire crews", and fly them to wherever the fire was, drop them and their gear off at the nearest airport that could accomodate a 737, then either fly back to Boise, or on to another state for more crews.

As a Loadmaster, your job would be two-fold:

Make sure the gear & packs were within the weight limits, and distributed evenly between the forward and aft cargo holds before takeoff, including the weights of the firefighters themselves. You'd make sure the aircrews got all the weight and distribution figures so they could keep the flying attitude and balance correct as they burned fueled during the flight.

You'd also log in take-off and landing times as the aircraft flew from point to point, because the contract aircraft earned its flight money by the actual airtime.

By FAA rules, aircrews were only allowed so many hours of flying time, and sometimes after a couple of firecrew pickups and drops, we wouldn't have enough legal airtime left to fly back to Boise, so we'd set in for the night. The government picked up the tab for the hotel, and we'd fly back the next day.

Over the seven fire seasons in which I flew as a Loadmaster, I saw a LOT of the states, including a half dozen trips up into Alaska, which included a 2-week assignment in Fairbanks, helping THEIR BLM staff ground-handle airplanes up there.

I even made a trip to Hawaii! THAT was unusual. We had a second contractor airliner one year from PJE (I can't remember today what that stood for). It was a 727. I was Loadmastering on that particular airplane, and we had set-in at Redding California for the night after dropping off a crew, and were due to head back to Boise in the AM. The OTHER contract jet (the 737) was up north somewhere with one of the other Loadmasters.

We got to the hotel, and I called back to Boise Dispatch to let 'em know we were down for the night. The dispatcher told me to tell the crew to get to bed early, because we were flying into Oakland in the morning, picking up overseas liferafts, food & medical supplies, a special rescue party and THREE DOGS. From there we would be headed to Honolulu!

I knew this particular dispatcher (Rich), and thought he was just "jerking my chain." "A FOREST FIRE IN HAWAII?"

No. The Island of Kuwaii had just been levelled by a hurricane, and this was a "mercy mission."

Our OTHER jet couldn't have gone, even if it had been available. The 737 only has 2 engines, and was NOT qualified to fly over the Pacific. I was on our THREE-engined 727, and it COULD go.

The aircrew was pretty excited about the trip because it meant a lot of airtime, which meant a lot of contract money. The stewardesses (called "flight attendants" today) were excited just to be going to Hawaii.

For ME, it would be "something different" so I was looking forward to it as well. So we flew to Oakland in the morning, topped-off the fuel tanks, loaded the supplies and searchdogs, and took off!

We landed at Hickham AFB several hours later. Got everything unloaded, and checked into the Ala Moana Hotel. The search crews, dogs and supplies would be flying to Kuwaii on smaller chartered "prop-jobs." I phoned back to Boise Dispatch, talked to the dispatcher on duty, and he told me to call him back when I got up in the morning and he'd have something for me.

That was the first thing I did when I got up, and he said we were to stay there for the next 24 hours, in case the rescue crews got everything wrapped up early and could come home. Besides, OUR airplane wasn't needed anywhere else at the moment.

"Any chance at ALL of us coming back tonight?" I asked?

"No....you guys do what you want over there and call me whenever you get back to the hotel tonight.!"

Well......as long as I was OVER here, and would probably never come back on my OWN dime........I HAD to see Pearl Harbor, and ride out on the Navy's Launch to see the USS Arizona. The hotel clerk told me which bus to catch out front, and I was on my way.

If you've ever watched archival footage of the Japanese attack, you've seen that old clocktower with the hands of that clock showing about 7:55 AM, just as the attack was starting. I got a picture of that, and got some great shots of the old sunken Arizona when I got out there. Unforgettable.

We flew back "empty" the next day. So.....just through "luck of the draw", I'd been "Loadmastering' the right plane at the right time!

Flying empty on either a 727 or 737 is a neat, quiet run. You essentially have the entire airplane to yourself, and didn't have to "squeeze in" anywhere! Most of my flights were a matter of flying into Phoenix, Albuquerque or someplace, pick up 4 or 5 firecrews (20 guys apiece including the team leader)------------dropping 'em off at their destination, and "ferrying" back empty to Boise.

The stewardesses would cleanup the galley, then settle into the seats of their choice, read a book, "cat-nap", etc. I would make entries in my flight log, and either sit in the jumpseat up in the cockpit, looking over the pilot's shoulder, or sometimes on a LONG trip back from Alaska, I'd pick out a row about midway back, lift the armrests, grab a pillow and stretch out across the three seats there. It was on these trips where I discovered the BEST place to BE on an airliner......if you had a choice---------right where the WINGS are. During a climb or descent, you dont have the "rise" or "fall" that you have if you're sitting in the back or up front.

The money was good and so was the job.

Most of the time, anyway.

I was on the twin-engined 737 during a fire-bust. We flew south down into the New Mexico & Arizona area, picking up two crews at each location. 40 in one place, and 40 MORE at the next place..........then we were to fly all 80 up into Redding California to help fight a big fire that had been steadily growing.

A vast majority of the firecrews were made up of Native American crews. The 6 to 7 months of fire-fighting was usually all the money they would make in the year.....but the money was very good during a hot season. For many, fighting BLM fires was their only livelihood.

It's been a lot of years now, and I don't recall exactly today, but I believe it was 2 crews of Crow indians and two crews of Blackfeet. For the point of this story, we'll say THAT's who it was-----(and I believe it WAS).

We fly the first 2 indian crews out of Albuquerque. We land in Phoenix and I get the OTHER 2 crews loaded, and we take off for California. 4 crews, 80 dudes.

I'm up front in the cockpit when one of the stewardesses comes up and gets me. There's going to be a FIGHT back there............"Not at 30,000 feet there isn't!"

I head back down the aisle and there's some verbal exchanges being made. I call for the "crew bosses" who inform me that each tribe REFUSES to ride with the OTHER!

Well..........it's just a bit late to do anything about that, 'cause we're airborne now, enroute to Redding, buzzing along about 520 ground speed, around 30,000 feet, and these dudes are fixin' to have a "FREE-FOR-ALL??"

The crew bosses are telling me that there is a tribal feud between these two tribes that has existed for GENERATIONS, and NEITHER of these two "crew leaders" even KNEW what it had all started over! They were just raised to HATE the other tribe!

I got hold of the cabin microphone (you know, the one the flight attendants use to give you your seatbelt instructions as you taxi out)......and basically told them that we were only about an hour away from landing in Redding. This was a government-contracted aircraft, and if ANY CRAP started IN-FLIGHT, causing us to make an emergency landing someplace, the local police would be waiting, and they could REST ASSURED they would NEVER fight a fire for the BLM again!

Well.........they understood MONEY if nothing else. Everyone settled down immediately and all got quiet. The co-pilot called me up to the cockpit and asked if we needed to land somewhere, and I told him everything was "ok" and we could go on into Redding. The rest of that flight was EERIE! 80 firefighters sat perfectly still and upright. All 80 just looking FORWARD, sitting there stone-faced.

We landed, taxied down to the fence where the California Forest Service buses were waiting, and shut down. I had the 2 crews we picked up first, get OFF first, unload their gear from the cargo holds and walk OFF the ramp, out to their buses. Only AFTER they were out of the area, did I let the OTHER two crews off to do the same.

When I called Boise Dispatch, I told them about the incident, and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED they never schedule these two tribes to work together on the same fire project.

As we took off to head back to Boise, I could only wonder how this was going to work out in the woods, when these guys were out there with axes and chainsaws! I HAD let the Forset Service guys know about it, before they loaded them up on the buses. To this day, I don't know what all happened in the woods after that.

It WAS proof to me, that it really is TRUE, when you hear the statement made, that you aren't born "bigoted" or "prejudiced"..............it has to be TAUGHT!

These firecrews didn't even KNOW each other, and were ready to start punching it out at 30,000 feet-------------and NOBODY EVEN KNEW WHY!!

You HAD to hate the other tribe..............because your parents and grandparents did! That was all the reason there was.

STUPID.

Somebody must have read my post-flight report, because they put some kind of "red flag" in the computer system, and while all the different native American tribes always did SUPERB fire suppression............THESE two tribes were never thrown together again on the same fire project.

For the remaining years I flew with the BLM, this was the only incident I would ever encounter.

..........and they never even knew WHY. I think there's something there for ALL of us to learn.