Interviewer: What was the worst fire you remember?

Snider: I guess the worst one wo be the one where I was flying th and the guys were trapped.

Interviewer: The Higgins Ridge f The reason we’re here today.

Snider: Yeah, mmhmm.

I think it’s one of those experi you couldn’t forget if you wante ‘Course smokejumpers are invinci we were beginning to have doubts safety.

I said, there’s no way we’re gon It’s coming.

That’s the first time quite fran that I ever thought I was going (helicopter propellers) Interviewer: Did anybody ever in to get a report about that incid Snider: I don’t think so.

Interviewer: Well I know you’ve your family about it.

What have you told them – family – about the Higgins Ridge fire o years?

Snider: I don’t tell them much.

Other people have told them more His actions was defying the odds as much as our being alive defie in that fire.

Funding for “Higgins Ridge” is p by, The Greater Montana Foundati communication on issues, trends to Montanans.

And by viewers like you , who ar Thank you.

Smokejumping starts with a leap It’s extremely difficult.

Extremely dangerous.

But it’s exciting.

And, once out the door, a jumper is already on the ground.

We put those fires out when they started.

As fast as we could.

But it doesn’t always end that w On one summer day in 1961, 20 sm landed into a circumstance eeril to a tragedy twelve years earlie I kept thinking about...they mus the same situation we are.

One that still reverberates the fire.

It happened about 20 miles north Montana, in a steep, funnel-shap called “Mann Gulch.” Lightning sparked a fire on the above the gulch.

On the hot afternoon of August 5 15 smokejumpers landed at the up Mann Gulch.

Foreman Wag Dodge was the leader the group.

He had eight years of experience Squadleader William Hellman had While he and several of his fell had served their country during most of the others jumping that relatively little time on the fi Four smokejumpers were in their but eight were rookies – in thei season of smokejumping – and Man was their very first fire jump.

It would also be their last.

As the fire burned on the ridge from them, Wag Dodge told the sm to head down the gulch so they c with the Missouri River at their backs.

But before they could make it th canyon.

As it started to burn uphill in Dodge called for his crew to ret A wall of flames was speeding up 15 feet every second.

The men started to race for thei Before they knew it, they were virtually surrounded by these fi amuck right at ‘em.

When it became clear to Dodge th outrun the fire, he made the unc decision to light a backfire – t path away from the advancing wal so that he could lie down in the and hope the main fire would go As he tried to tell the others, know what he was doing, or perha hear him over the roar of the fi They just kept running.

They realized, hey, we’re in big trouble here.

We’ve gotta get back up over the back by where they had jumped an from this thing.

Problem is the fire went faster did.

Two managed to scramble to the t ridge, finding a break between t 17-year-old Bob Sallee and 21-ye Walter Rumsey took shelter in a over the ridge before the fire g After it passed, they headed bac Mann Gulch.

Hard to talk about the rest of i They started lookin’ around for They found a couple of them were but they didn’t make it.

It was bad.

Thirteen firefighters died as a fire.

The youngest, Eldon Diettert, di 19th birthday.

The oldest, David Navon, was 28.

Joseph Sylvia and Squadleader He died the next morning from their Both 24 years old.

That was a tragedy.

If the crew had listened more to they probably wouldn’t have died If they’d started a fire and the and then go up in the burnt area might’ve saved them, just that d Wag Dodge’s escape fire proved e The oncoming fire found no immed in the burned out area where he so it parted around him.

But while Dodge survived, he never jumped again.

Three years later, Hollywood cap Gulch.

“Hey, Dick.

There’s another one.

telling a distinctively similar smokejumper crew overrun by fire "Cliff!” “Red Skies of Montana.” In the film, a veteran foreman i survivor of his fire crew.

“Get back!” It haunts him.

“Over and out!” But later, the foreman gets a ch “Dig in, dig in deep, let the fi ordering a defiant crew to shelt “Now start digging foxholes.” And this time, a Hollywood ending.

“…feeling good as new.” The entire crew survives and liv again.

(heroic music) If you were a young person and y movie, you’d say to yourself, “G wanna do something like this.” “I’ll notify the smokejumper bas “OK, we’re on our way.” The 1950s saw a surge in smokeju The Forest Service increased its to get to fires fast, while they which saved the expense of fight fires.

By 1960, smokejumper bases were across the West.

The largest in Missoula, Montana to half of the nation’s 300 smok It’s the perfect job if you like out in the woods.

Most were college students, usin a summer job to pay for their ne of school.

You know how you are when you’re Invincible, you can do anything, I said, ‘hey that sounds like fu probably pays pretty good.’ In 1961, they earned about two d hour, making 83 bucks for a 40-h for taking on the risks and the smokejumping.

We learned that when you’re not you’re makin’ a mistake.

Every jump, there’s a reason to They always ask you, ‘Is the fir To me, it was the second and third one that was the scariest The first you just go out and yo know what’s gonna happen but the and third jump you realize all t The smokejumpers relied on Johns Service, known for its experienc pilots.

They had the skills to fly the m region’s millions of acres of ro After a spotter’s hard slap on t You jump out, and that chute exp And I tell you, it gets your att When you go like this and there’ ol’ beautiful parachute up there ‘Hallelujah.

Now I gotta find a place to land It’s pretty exciting just lookin there from the air, seeing all t and your adrenaline gets going.

Training for the air began on th The focus was on physical fitnes Our day started well before brea the first thing you did was go o on the asphalt, the runway.

Besides the exercises to get the there also was smokejumper speci equipment, like a jump tower to shock of the opening parachute.

I remember the worst thing was t a big long bar and they strapped to it.

We referred to it as “the tortur You bend backwards as far as you you’ve touched the ground.

That’s a long way to bend.

They weren’t easy on us, they ra through the ropes.

Talk about ropes, one of the toughest things we had to climb about 30 or 40 feet.

You ever climbed a rope?

Boy, it’s not easy.

Now I went through the Army airb And smokejumper school was at le times as hard.

As far as I’m concerned the trai absolutely outstanding.

We were all there for the same no doubt about that.

Not to wash out first of all, bu Man, if you didn’t have a good, work ethic as a jumper you didn’ very long.

The men training the smokejumper themselves.

Seasoned ones.

They were the best.

I mean those guys had been throu And if they weren’t the best, fo they wouldn’t be training.

Only the best of the best get to They knew what they were doing, and they made sure that we did i It became not only a disciplinar instruction but also a friendly Where we were expected to pay at our lessons, and if we had troub count on the overhead team to be ”The principal influences acting Beyond parachute and landing les made sure the smokejumpers were fight fire.

“...when all three are favorable anything can happen.” You had extensive fire training.

We had practice fires and we pra fire line, way too much of it, b and you always had squad leaders with you, you had classes in fir “Adjacent radiation dries out th Trainers used the example of Man punctuate the importance of list You know if the fire escapes and you have no control you’re a mercy of that fire, and so Mann talked about a lot.

‘We can’t let that happen.’ The guys panicked and lost their lives.

We were well trained about that.

I think that was burned into mos you better stop and think what y and follow the experienced squad We were, yeah I think, quite wel but never even gave it a thought end up in such a similar situat (thunder) A super-charged fire season move on the new smokejumpers of 1961.

I hit the season of all seasons.

The mother of all fire seasons.

1961 was where all the records w As soon as summer hit, so did th As the farmers would say, that w Whenever we saw thunder and ligh coming up through the Bitterroot valleys, we’d get out there and People would say, ‘what’s the ma with you?

You don’t want the forest to bur Most rookies jumped on their fir the end of June, and, after that nonstop action in what would bec a record-breaking year for fire We were just going all the time in ‘61 There were a couple occasions we actually ended up getting bac the base and that same day going not even a change of clothes.

During the last week of July, a in Idaho’s Nezperce National For fire.

Higgins Ridge.

Smokejumpers contained that fire But a week later, lookouts saw s from Higgins Ridge again.

It was August 4, 1961.

The Grangeville Smokejumper disp to see who was available to resp A group of Missoula smokejumpers returned to that base from the m Corn Creek fire burning along Id River.

With resources stretched thin, t 27-year-old Ross Parry to head out to lead the effort on Higgin I volunteered.

I mean, I quote, volunteered.

I wasn't too anxious to go on th Parry’s personal jump gear was s its way back from the last fire, borrowing a helmet and scroungin gear before he and seven other s suited up.

And then we hopped in the old Fo and away we went to Higgins Ridg The Ford Trimotor was an antique then.

The ride took them about 30 minu they got their first pass at the They joked that it looked more l job than an 8-manner.

It looked like it's going to be cake because there was no wind.

It wasn't going anywhere.

That's what strikes in my mind m How small that fire was for eigh And to what it grew into.

They couldn’t predict how quickl would change.

They jumped onto the ridge in th that had burned the week before.

I remember jumping in the old bu I remember our chutes all laying Everybody landed OK And our personal gear and stuff, grabbed a tool and went to work.

You were dealing with the six fe to deal with, or eight feet or h of fire line you had to dig till the next position to keep moving You were gonna have to get it ou gonna get big, but we were doing good job of it.

We had to brush out of the way a ready to go down to the soil and line It wasn’t burning all that much.

And it would have been easy for until it wasn't .

The air was hot and dry.

The previous day, nearby Fenn Ra hit a record 107 degrees.

And it was well on its way to tr again on Higgins Ridge.

All it took was an ember to igni tinder outside the fireline.

Every time a spark hit something that line, that fire took off.

That spot fire would get bigger Even on a stump, it would start the stump afire.

First thing you know, why, these fires were bigger than the main we were circling.

So I'd have to call the crew bac those fires again.

And it just seemed like we just headway.

And pretty soon it was all aroun We were right in the middle of i We knew that we were in trouble.

I mean, we knew that right off t the squad leader was right there out.

Saying, ‘hey, boys, we got to do We got to do that.’ I knew by then that we weren't g able to stop it, but we were the We were going to keep working an the best we could.

And just about that time when I given up trying to get it oursel this plane overhead.

And lo and behold, here was 12 m They had just the first stick ju And I thought, Oh, good, maybe n hold this fire.

A dozen smokejumpers dropped out Among them, Fritz Wolfrum, a for officer who stood 6 foot 4 inche he put on his fire boots.

He was a big German with a crew He was a good leader.

He took his role seriously.

He didn’t try to be liked.

I think everybody had trust in h of his whiskers, so to speak, he around for awhile.

He had jumped for years, and he’ probably hundreds of smokejumper Fritz’s squad landed in an open and made their way up to Parry’s on top of the ridge.

Fritz was a foreman, so I was ve happy to turn the fire over to h Here it is, have at it, you know As the jumpers continued to dig more manpower, Fritz told Parry smokejumpers to go down the othe the ridge to try to pinch off th So that's what I did.

I took the five and he kept the the main side that we were going As the 15 jumpers got to work on on the ridge, Fritz noticed the trees moving faster in a sudden and he knew it was just a matter that heat and sparks came up and and started a crown fire.

Tom Kovalicky was a 25-year-old tried to become a smokejumper ye but always failed the eye exam.

This year, he’d memorized the ey This was only his seventh fire a but Fritz trusted him.

Fritz came up to me and he says, go back to where we started to d line.

He says, I don't feel good about in weather.

We could feel that change coming And by the time I walked back to the line, I no sooner started looking arou And all of a sudden the fire cam up the hill from below me, cross and just exploded on the hillsid It was Hollywood type stuff.

Now there was a fire between Kov other smokejumpers.

So I put my head down, pull my k and I ran, you know, through the get to the crew.

I told Fritz what happened.

I said, you're not going to beli fire just exploded.

I said, ‘holy hell.’ We all recognized what was happe it just went swoooh.

I said, uh oh, that’s not a spot That's a pretty good sized fire.

It's coming at us.

I mean, we thought we were goner Suddenly the fire gained the upp a spot the smokejumpers were pre As were gaining on it, it seemed like we were we were in a pretty But then it was very obvious tha in a pretty good position becaus was like licking at our heels You could hear that fire coming that's one thing I do remember.

And thank goodness we had a fore time that recognized what was ha Fritz reacted immediately and ca to retreat.

He said we need to move.

He said we need to move now.

I remember that very distinctly.

He had seriousness in his voice.

This is not going to be an open The men followed Fritz with full even though it wasn’t clear to a where they were headed.

Outta here?

Where do you go?

It was timber, steep canyons all just flames everywhere.

So where you gotta go?

Nobody panicked, nobody argued it was just a natural thing that Fritz.

It almost flies in your face lik But it was wisdom.

It was very obvious.

It was wisdom.

Fritz knew the only possible ref be higher on the ridge where the burned.

But getting there would require through the fire.

I had full trust in what our lea telling us to do.

It’s just something you do.

So it was a pretty good wall of And we just went through that wa just a few seconds.

We got through it.

And he then proceeded to take us through the unburned material wi actively snapping, you know, beh To try to catch up with us.

Farther down the mountain, Ross his smaller crew faced the same as the flames closed in.

It was looking pretty doggone se on our side And I remember these, these guys working for me kept looking back know, uh, wondering, what are we do?

What are we going to do?

And finally, I just says, ‘No, i hot.’ I said, ‘We better get out of he Parry led the men back around th as he formulated an escape plan.

It looked like we might be able this fire down the ridge.

That fire on the other side wher 15 jumpers were, was just roarin It was big, mushrooming way up t I mean, there was no way that th to outrun that fire.

I just kind of knew that in my m weren't going.

It looked like we might be able And that's when this Mann Gulch my head.

You know, the Mann Gulch Fire, 1 to outrun the fire, and only two And that was on my mind.

I kept thinking about they they been in the same situation we ar I didn't think we were going to You could hear that thing coming up the mountainside see the smoke roarin up through You've all seen a blowtorch.

That's how it looked.

And the roar.

It was scary.

No doubt about it.

But Parry stayed coolheaded.

Instead of running down the moun he led the men to a rockslide no away.

It was fairly isolated.

There was forest all around both up and around us.

I just told ‘em, I says, build y a hole in these rocks.

You know, you can move them arou yourself a little shelter area.

and we'll hunker down here.

And so they started to.

One of them came up to me and I he -- he was kind of scared.

We were all scared.

We were scared to death, but we weren't panicking.

There was a point when I thought to just run down over that mount away because I said there's no w to get out of this.

It’s comin’ And I, I said to mys I said, you know, I’d like to ju over there and see if I can outr But then smarts took over that.

And I knew that there's no way y away from that fire.

You go runnin out, out someplace It'll get you.

As long as you're together, you can fight it.

But if you're all by yourself, t way you can protect or protect a as far as that goes.

I mean, that’s part of our train they said, always follow your le Don't go off on your own somewhe Don't do this kind of thing.

Stay with him.

He knows what he's doing.

So that's it.

We just followed him because we to do that, and we had a lot of in him.

For Parry’s group, that meant ta in the rocks and hoping for the I was scared, but I felt like it our hands.

We were either going to survive pile or we weren't I felt like w I felt quite confident we would.

If I hadn't.

Maybe I'd have panicked.

I don't know.

They each dug out depressions in and settled in as they felt the the fire getting closer.

We kept our bandanas over our fa protect our face and then got as could in the rocks, I remember d the rocks and getting down there could get some fresh air.

I was hunkered down in the rocks and my helmet down over, y to I couldn't touch the helmet w hands.

And I heard this clunk on the ro around my canteen and actually b and dropped out onto the rocks.

It was pretty hot.

All the while, they worried abou on top of the ridge.

One smokejumper asked Parry if h they’d survived.

And I told him, I says, if the o could have made it is they got i burn is that I don't think they made it.

I really didn’t think they made honest with you.

Higher on Higgins Ridge, Fritz W managed to lead his men to the r the main fire had already passed It was an open area that had pre cut out to use for helicopter la But the trees and logs inside it burning when they got there.

There was dead trees, flaming tr and strong winds.

I would say the winds were 50, 6 hour.

It's like standing next to a jet The winds were blowing the ashes like in swirls around us so, so it was sticking your eyes togeth They laid face down and tried to for embers landing on each other And if we saw a spark or a flame pat it out.

I heard somebody say your your p fire.

So I turned around to see who it and it was me.

I had shag jeans - cutoffs - and ends had caught fire.

While standard firefighting pant to be designed, the Forest Servi the Missoula smokejumpers newly flame resistant shirts.

And all the men had them on, exc Wolfrum, who’d left the base in and just his T-shirt.

And I can still see Fritz in my hunkered down in that T-shirt.

You could see maybe 3 or 4 feet you with all the smoke.

So, you knew, everybody was arou didn't know for sure where they you had to try to help keep thos each other.

But embers were the least of the as the trees burning around them boil.

The alpine fir tree is loaded wi underneath the bark When it gets so hot, it just exp And when it does, it just roars.

It's quite frightening.

It sounds like a railroad train through the woods when the trees up and exploding.

The weakened trees couldn’t with wind.

Ker-BANG.

A tree would come down.

From the wind.

Comin’ close, you know, right ne Some of us with glasses could se and Fritz, too.

That we could tell everybody to little bit to get out of the way and then bam, a tree fall down.

Guys would holler.

Uhh.

It just sound like a freight train.

It did.

I mean, it was that loud It was very, very scary.

I heard somebody sayin’ the Lord And I don’t know who it was.

I poked the guy next to me and I remember how that Hail Mary thin And he started laughing, which, that's what I was aiming at.

I was trying to get to the point had to be a little bit practical in or living.

Course smokejumpers are invincib we were beginning to have doubts That's the first time, quite fra I ever thought I was going to di It’s that simple.

And it was a combination of the the heat, the wind.

But and I hope the rest of the j this way, because I knew I did.

I felt I was going to suffocate If you stood up, I think you cou from a quick breath of hot air.

Fire burns, takes oxygen and too out.

Now that's scary when you can't Face-down, they sucked oxygen ou they’d dug in the soil.

And then the wind would let up k and we'd all stand up and just gasp for air.

And suck in air and suck in air.

And we fill your lungs with oxyg a few seconds.

And then that thing had come rig again the wind’d start blowing, right back down in the hole agai We counted on that wind to chang Yeah, I can remember.

How long is it gonna before we c again?

That happened for - that went an I think a lot of us just didn’t were gonna make it, but you don’ ever give up.

You just, you’re not gonna give In the middle of the fire, they imagine their salvation was in t on the other side of the smoke.

Interviewer: Over the years, how you thought about the Higgins Ri Snider: Oh, I think about it qui of ways that I could’ve done it I can’t come up with one.

Rod Snider has memories in these He served this region for Johnso from the bubble of a Bell helico Johnson had a fleet of similar c Snider was assigned to fly the o skids painted bright red.

The pilots nicknamed it “Red Leg I was lucky, I got to fly Red Le I got to fly it all the time.

It was kinda my helicopter.

At least I thought it was.

In the summer of 1961, Johnson h Snider and Red Legs at the remot Ranger Station.

With the nearest road 25 miles a either hoof it in or fly there, the grassy X of an airstrip.

It was Moose Creek Ranger Bill M 30th birthday on August 4th, but far from his mind that day as he the smoke column getting bigger Ridge.

Magnuson asked Snider for a lift closer look.

So I got the copter and away we Snider landed one ridge over, an as the fire started gaining stea Borate bombers dropped retardant effect.

They had radio communications fr so they knew two groups of smoke dropped in to fight the fire on Before he was a pilot, Snider ha summers as a smokejumper.

So he sensed the fire behavior w to be a battle for the smokejump wanted to check on them.

He and Magnuson hopped back in “ and hovered close to the fire to could locate the smokejumpers.

So we went out and couldn’t find right off went up on the fire li along the edge of the fireline.

By now, the fire had blown up, b both sides of the ridge.

He flew over the fire scouring f of the 20 men.

But the winds were so much and t that you couldn’t see hardly any With the helicopter almost out o no sign of the smokejumpers, the to Moose Creek to refuel.

The smokejumpers didn’t have a r with no word on how they were do and Magnuson were determined to them.

Even though no one gave them ord so.

They hopped back in “Red Legs” a time flew past the fireline, sea signs of the smokejumpers in the the fire.

They feared the worst as they tr through the smoke below them.

Finally, something caught their alongside the flames – it was the movement of men weari They stood out a little bit, and my gosh, they’re in the fire.

I thought, I gotta get these guy here, but I don’t know how I’m The men on the ground had shelte for about three hours when only thought they heard something abo of the fire.

When we heard the roar of the bl easy to think it was the fire.

You could hear the blades pop po then we knew, it was a helicopte I wondered why he was flying in up there.

Not even thinking that he might for an opportunity to come down.

It looked like they really neede I was gonna try.

I made about four or five or six to get in and the winds were pic heavy and the smoke was heavy.

He was doin’ this, and I thought crashing.

He was wobbling you know.

I don’t know if any other pilot tried that ‘cause it was really it was really blowin.

We had no idea that somebody was try and rescue us.

None whatsoever.

And even though the trees had be a helipad, it hadn’t been cleare it was not necessarily a safe pl to land a helicopter.

The wind was really cookin’ in t I couldn’t see the heliport all to get down.

I had to come in high and then d into it when I could see a littl It seemed like he had to slam it of the winds, I mean, it landed really hard.

I remember seeing that helicopte through the smoke, and there was shooting up all around that heli I mean, I was amazed.

I just didn’t see how he was abl set that copter down through all and smoke.

I couldn’t believe it.

I mean that took a lot of guts t helicopter down into where we we You just can’t imagine what that like when he come in there.

Once Snider landed, Ranger Magnu out with his radio.

I saw this guy standing over her Where the hell did he come from?

Suddenly I saw the helicopter.

Meanwhile Snider made his messag the chaos, waving two smokejumpe It was just fire all over the pl was just right there, waving us That was a great feeling.

Loaded ‘em up, two guys in there to take off and go through the s see anything for a long time and no instruments to help me throug I got ‘em out and took ‘em to a where it was open, and the fire get to them, and let them out.

Snider was about ask even more o Bell helicopter built for two.

An act that would test the muscl as much as a pilot’s persistence There wasn’t any question I was I was going back somehow to get When he picked them up, the firs said I’ll be back.

And he was.

As Snider flew back to Higgins R to calculate how he could possib the 18 remaining jumpers.

I thought, I don’t see how I can out at a time and get ‘em all ou in time, because the fire’s stil up from the backside of the hill a long time trying to get in and and I did it, I thought, well ma can get in the copter.

And then we had these trays on t the helicopter that we carried c I told the guys, ‘ why don’t you in those trays and put your hand hold tight and I’ll take you out He didn’t have to ask me twice t to do when he came in.

I could just go in there and jum skid and he lift me out of there It wasn’t wide enough to get com in, I much, I do remember that.

Last thing Rod hollered out, he on to your damn hard hats, I don them flying into the rotor, so p hats under us so they wouldn’t f copter, rotors wouldn’t be good, and off we went.

But I can tell you this, riding of a helicopter is very interest Terrific view.

Inside the cabin, Snider knew he Red Legs to perform something it designed to do.

I remember Rod just saying, ‘Boy pressure doesn’t look very good.

We’re going to dive down over th and then don’t worry, I’m gonna back up to get you up to the rid I thought, oh, here we go again, is the helicopter gonna make it Snider had rescued three loads o when Ross Parry decided, maybe i to lead his men out of the rocks So we started going up, and it w there was still fire all over.

And that’s when I got my worst b Was walking up through there.

I must’ve stepped in a hot coal it went down over my boot and bu bit before I could Parry and the four smokejumpers watch would make two more trips Ranger Magnuson was still on the in hand, waiting for the rescue He was a pretty brave guy, he wa the very last trip out and made got out.

It was nearing nightfall as Magn climbed aboard the copter.

Parry had been the first smokeju Ridge that day, and now he was t out, as Rod Snider and Red Legs to safety.

Interviewer: Were you proud?

Snider: Yeah, Snider: I was proud of that heli That’s what I was proud of.

‘Cause I didn’t think it could t punishment it did.

I was really proud of that helic The next day, a mechanic would c that had carried the weight of 2 of the fire on Higgins Ridge.

The mast that holds the blades I it was gonna be longer.

From all the forces I put on it a little uneasy because I knew I everything in there to get ‘em o But when they gave it an inspect couldn’t find anything wrong wit So it was a good helicopter.

It was a real plus.

Thank God Snider came along with or I don’t know how long we woul there.

All I knew is I got tired of lyi in the ground trying to breathe.

When that copter showed up, boy, a lifesaver so to speak.

The smokejumpers were flown and of the wilderness, and treated f and smoke exposure to their lung Small potatoes considering the a Well if they hadn’t found that h a burned up.

I think they would’ve burned up.

They did really a good job in th themselves out.

You had Fritz’s leadership with the ground, you had the training you had a pilot who put our sal above his own, All those pieces came together t into a successful rescue or evac that spared people gruesome agony.

If we’d had people that chose to that fire overran us I mean, it circled us completely We were surrounded.

If we’d had chose something else We’d never made it.

There were several times we come close to being another Mann Gulc First there was 12, and then the been 20.

Reflecting back on some of the c hard to explain that they did pl that could’ve been just a matter I guess it just wasn’t our time be burned up in the fire.

And Rod should have all the compliments he can get for doing that, what he did.

All I can say, he did a miraculous job.

That was really really something that he would the bravery to do that to come in and get us out of the His actions was defying the odds as much as our being alive defied the odds in that fire.

Interviewer: Were you a hero?

Snider I don’t feel like hero, really.

I feel like it was my job.

That’s what I did.

I felt good about it, though.

I felt good I got ‘em all out.

I always felt good about that.

Perhaps it was his selflessness.

And his confidence in his skills But maybe it was also Snider’s deeper understanding of the smokejumpers’ situation.

I often wondered why he did that it seemed like an awful chance he was taking, and it was it was definitely a chance, and it wasn’t until, oh, after, maybe a year after that I found he had been a smokejumper.

That’s why he did it.

He was one of us.

Interviewer: What made you do it Snider Oh, it had to be done.

It had to be done.

Interviewer: Did you ever hear ‘thank you’ fr of those men?

Snider: Not really.

Are they gonna be here?

Interviewer: I believe there are Snider: Is that right?

Oh wow.

I’ve never met ‘em before.

Last time I saw them, they were waiting for somethin’ I don’t kn I haven’t seen Rod since they d off the fire.

And I always thought, gee, it su if we could all get together som Nearly 60 years later, many of t had that chance.

To relive the story with the one there.

We all went through the same thi I can just imagine me saying som and somebody saying, ‘well that’ and I’ll say, ‘well if that’s th I think it’s gonna be eye-openin I have two grandkids coming one 13 and one 10, it’s gonna be I don’t know why I didn’t explai to my family my wife didn’t even know about i and we’ve been married 57 years.

and to thank the pilot who put t his own.

And to all relish the outcome that might not have been.

I think we all were lucky, reall I think we were lucky and we did All of us.

We must have ‘cause we all got o Funding for “Higgins Ridge” is p by, The Greater Montana Foundati communication on issues, trends to Montanans.

And by viewers like you , who ar Thank you.