I am sorry about what you and your friends went through. Even then, I knew that the whole fable of spotted owls needing vast tracts of undisturbed old-growth forest was nonsense. I’ve seen them in cut-over areas and in fairly young second-growth. In fact, the first nest I saw was in a Ponderosa snag in the middle of a clear cut; the birds had been reported to the USFS by the loggers who cut that sale.
It was a pretty good way to spend a summer, but fighting fires was more fun and more lucrative.
I wasn’t in the military, BTW. Fire crews, even Category I such as smokejumpers (which I wasn’t) and hotshots (which I was) aren’t military.
i think i must have been looking at hot tabascos about page re mil service.
(well,, hotshot crews are a type of special forces though, and are a service to the country /-)