Ten Missoula rookie smokejumpers looked at the Sloan’s Bridge area 3000 feet below. What they saw and felt was perfect wind conditions, blue skies and wide open Flathead Indian Reservation lands; it was the perfect backdrop for conducting their first aircraft jump.
Streamers are thrown out of the airplane to test wind direction. Seeing acceptable conditions, the rookies – under the watchful eye of their instructors, jumped from the airplane to plummet to the earth. “There are definitely knots in their stomachs,” said Missoula Smokejumpers Public Information Officer, Kurt Rohrbach.