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Obituary
Bill died March 24, 2021, after a short battle with cancer. He was born January 18, 1944, in Silver City, New Mexico. Bill attended high school in Reserve, NM, and graduated from Western New Mexico with a degree in Animal Husbandry. During this time Bill was hired by the USFS as a firefighter in the Gila NF. In 1963 Bill rookied at Missoula and stayed with it until he was drafted in 1969 into the U.S Army. After serving at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, he returned to smokejumping in 1973. As a smokejumper foreman, load master, and spotter, Bill led jumpers throughout the western US, making hundreds of jumps from various aircraft into wildland fires. Bill decided to move to the front of the plane in 1982. He was hired as a pilot in Albuquerque and trained as a transport and lead plane pilot. Bill was also a MAFFS (Military Airborne Firefighting System) instructor for the Air National Guard and the Air Force Reserves. This included a deployment to Indonesia to fight wildfires there. Bill had over 8000 flight hours in single and multi-engine aircraft including a type rating in the DC-3. Bill attained the ranks of Master Parachute rigger, Airline Transport Pilot, and Flight instructor by the FAA. He retired from the USFS in 1999. Bill jumped at Missoula 1963, 64, 66, 67,72-84 and at Grangeville 1965, 68, and 1971.
Identifier
Allred_William-P-Bill_Missoula_1963
Publication Date
April 2021
Keywords
Smokejumping; Smokejumpers -- United States; National Smokejumper Association; Wildfire fighters; Obituaries
Disciplines
Forest Management
Recommended Citation
National Smokejumper Association, "Smokejumper Obituary: Allred, William P. "Bill" (Missoula 1963)" (2021). Smokejumper Obituaries. 205.
https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_bios/205
