A hatch on the side of the single-engine Pilatus plane opened, exposing the flag-draped casket to the small crowd of family, friends and officials huddled in the biting wind outside Missoula’s smokejumper hangar Sunday afternoon.
Four honor guards, two full-dressed representatives each from the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, stepped up to lower the casket onto a roller cart.
Kevin Kicking Woman stood nearby, singing a “flag” song with a single drum in his hands as accompaniment for the full-throated voice that, rather than drown out the wind, moved with it, nebulous and clear against the cold.