This might have been the most brutal smokejumper project I was ever on. About 6 of us volunteered to jump in to retrieve a giant plastic scientific balloon of some kind that had crashed out in the Alaska bush. Sounded like a fun deal. When we got there we found that it had landed in an icy creek. The plastic was laced with tiny steel cables. It weighed many, many tons, with countless tons of water inside and was tangled in the willows as well. The water was so cold it gave us "ice cream headaches" of the legs. I guarantee you many people would have broken down in tears. These guys kicked butt. It was so horrible we spent a lot of time laughing. I recognize Chris Silks, Fred Hernandez, Mel Tenneson and myself in these photos, and I think Charlie Brown. The last photo shows 10 or more helicopter sling-loads of balloon to be flown out.
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 03:42:38 +0000
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