MISSOULA — The annual Smokejumper Reunion returned to Missoula this week, celebrating 85 years of the elite firefighting program with a special flight honoring a fallen comrade.
Miss Montana aircraft and a crew of smokejumpers took off Friday morning, heading for Blodgett Canyon to remember Don MacKey, a smokejumper who lost his life fighting the South Canyon Fire in Colorado in 1994.
"It means a lot to us as jumpers to honor our fellow jumper," said Jeff Kinderman, retired smokejumper and assistant base manager from Missoula.
Watch as Don MacKey, a smokejumper who lost his life fighting the South Canyon Fire in Colorado in 1994 is remembered:
The flight planned to drop streamers over MacKey's memorial site in the Bitterroot Mountains.
"We're hopefully gonna be able to come over that spot and throw a whole bunch of streamers in recognition and honor of Don," Kinderman said.
MacKey was among 15 firefighters who died on Storm King Mountain during the South Canyon Fire, a tragedy that remains significant in wildland firefighting history.
"It's a hazardous occupation and when people get caught in situations that results in untimely deaths, it's sad, we remember them and honor them," said Richard Hulla, retired smokejumper and U.S. Forest Service pilot from Missoula.
Both Kinderman and Hulla worked alongside MacKey and remember his dedication. Kinderman recalled being with MacKey on his first jump on an out-of-control fire in Oregon.
"We had finally decided to abandon it, we walked like through the night into the next morning to get to a road to pick us up. It was pretty tense for a while," Kinderman said.
From the KPAX archives:
The retired smokejumpers believe MacKey would have had a distinguished career had his life not been cut short.
"He would have gone on probably to be one of the major players in the program in Missoula. I know he loves smoke jumping, and like I say, he probably would have stuck with the program and then went through the ranks," Hulla said.
MacKey's memorial sits in Blodgett Canyon, a place in the mountains he loved, where family and fellow jumpers visit to remember him.
"Every couple of years, I'll hike in there. You sit there, it's a spot of contemplation, and you can look across the creek at the sheer walls," Kinderman said.
This aerial tribute gave MacKey's fellow smokejumpers a chance to honor him with one more symbolic jump.
"He had a complete package in a smoke jumper program which was sad to see him go," Hulla said.
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