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February 09, 2002

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Right out of high school I got to work directly with my father for a summer as we traveled in and around Oregon and Washington state fueling and performing field service on aircraft dedicated to fighting fires for the forestry service.

I recall a great deal of our time was spent around the Kalamath Falls area in Oregon. The employment rate was very low so the government and forestry service would pay some of the locals to go out and assist in fighting the fires. Some of the locals would then go out and start some of these fires that they would then be paid to fight, thus insuring more work for themselves.

This is a picture that my father took of a very large aircraft dumping chemical in an attempt to smother a fire.