The smallest fires I Jumped were 2 manners on smouldering snags- I also, once, jumped with 63 other guys- 4 DC-3 Loads- on a big one too far into the Wilderness to be practically reached by Ground Crews. While the Hotshot crews deployed and worked as a unit, the Jumpers were most useful in hitting a small fire with a small crew and preventing it from spreading. The Hotshots worked together as a crew, while the Smokejumpers were most definitely a collection of individuals.
Even the method of building Fireline was different. Looking back, the missions of the two groups were dissimilar. Progressing through Hotshot Crews is a very common path to Smokejumpers. OK- I did a Season with the Shasta Hotshots in California and then applied and was accepted for the Region I Smokejumpers in Missoula, where I did four seasons. It is said- “How can you tell if there is a Smokejumper in the Bar?” I can anticipate a bit of an unnecessary Family Feud about just who are the Forest Service’s “Most Elite” firefighters. Like sex, you will never be able to adequately convey the experience to another who wasn’t “there”. In that, it is like Mark Twain’s comment about the lessons learned from picking up a wild cat by its tail. Working your a55 off and having your own neck stretched out on the line is a very personal, intimate experience that can be learned in no other way. A fire and response is too complex for any one person to really know it all.
It looks a lot different to the arsonist, the artist, the writer, the Fire Behaviorist, the old supers, transport, supply, camp manager, traffic control, dispatch, LEO, overhead, payroll, pilots, water resources, and the personnel clerk.
The fire looks different from the eyes of a green firefighter who is being mentored in the work, and the seasoned firefighter whose job it is to mentor him. Every degree of separation and every year of experience makes a difference too. Ever been on the ground with a McCloud, Pulaski, or a chainsaw, digging line and backfiring? Every level of separation, every step up the ladder takes one away from the experience that is going on with the firefighter. Only a matter of curiosity, not dismissal here.