When Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., verbally attacked a
Forest Service Hotshot crew in the Billings airport in July (“You
did a piss-poor job. … didn’t do a goddamn thing but sit
around and get paid $10,000.”), the Hotshots did the only thing
federal employees can do: Instead of responding to Burns, they
called back to the fire camp, which dispatched a Fire Information
Officer out to the scene to find out Conrad’s problem.
Since most wildland firefighters in Montana are federal,
state or tribal employees, they can’t say or do anything that
might appear political. But as a retiree, I’m not bound by
those rules, and decided to let my fellow Montanans know where we
firefighters are really coming from.
Thus the following
bumper sticker:
Wildland Firefighters for
TESTER
Dick Mangan
President, 2004-2006 International Association of Wildland
Fire
Missoula, Montana
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fight fire with fire.
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