Reflection from Murray Braden

The following is a short excerpt written by Murray Braden and published in "Static Lines and Canopies" in which he discusses hostility felt by his wife, Geraldine, from community members during his time at Missoula Camp 103:

"When Geraldine arrived in Missoula in June, she was able to rent the room just vacated by Florence Wenger, who had moved out to Nine Mile to join her husband, Roy, our Camp Director. Geraldine soon found a position as secretary in a Missoula insurance firm. And here again she experienced some harassment. One day one of the two partners in the firm angrily told her that he had learned that her husband was a conscientious objector. He did not fire her, but Geraldine did not wish to work in so hostile an environment, and she resigned her position. Quite soon she was able to get work with the Nursery School at the University of Montana, where several of the CPS wives were also employed.

About fourteen months later, the same insurance man was hunting elk with some friends in one of the mountain ranges near Missoula, and he had a heart attack. When word was radioed to Missoula, a squad of CPS men was promptly flown out over the area. They parachuted down to the stricken man and carried him through the rough country, on a stretcher, to a road where an ambulance was waiting. I am happy to report that he survived the ordeal."

From Static Lines and Canopies: Stories from the Smoke Jumpers of 1943-1945 Civilian Service Camp 103, Missoula, Montana. Ed. Asa Mundell. Beaverton: 1993. Print.