Firefighter Becomes Marine

Firefighter becomes Marine
By U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Darhonda V. Hall

Many people join the Marine Corps to add excitement to their lives. As a firefighter, Pfc. Katrina Marie Helleson already had plenty of excitement.

“I did not quit the Forest Service, I joined the Marine Corps Reserves,” Helleson explained. “I wanted a chance to gain better leadership during my time off, so I joined the Marine Corps.”

For Helleson, a native of Tonasket, Wash., her experiences outside the Marine Corps involved a seasonal job of fighting small acre forest fires while working on an initial attack crew.

In 2001, Helleson was on a 20-person self-supporting crew that went to large incident fires with high complexity. The crew, known as a National Hotshot Crew, fought fires that threatened homes and other resources out of Great Falls, Mont.

“On the Hotshot crew, I worked eight months and went to 10 different states on fire emergencies,” she said. “Our crew would stay out on the fire line up to 16 days at a time and up to 16 hours a day.”

Helleson served her country by preventing the spreading of small fires and preserving the natural conservation of land.

The job, unfortunately, was seasonal so for four months out of the year, she was laid off.

Helleson received her seasonal job with the Forest Service by attending an academy in Sacramento, Calif., that prepared her for a supervisory role as an engine foreman.

Helleson is an assistant foreman on an Initial Attack fire engine, which only has 250-400 gallons of water and is ready to support a small fire with either manpower and hand tools, or suppress the fire with water.

“To this day, my preferred tool to use is still the chainsaw,” she laughed.

Helleson decided to go through Marine recruit training while in her “offf-season” of firefighting.

She will have a military occupational specialty of landing support specialist, which involves the movement, evacuation, and hospitalization of personnel.

“I was inspired to join the best military branch that the world has to offer and gain awesome experiences that I can apply in my everyday life and job,” said Helleson.

“All the co-workers that I work with at home support me a hundred percent and are my motivation so I can be a better peer and supervisor.”

Helleson said she plans to return to her job and become a smokejumper by the end of next year. Helleson said a smokejumper is the most elite firefighting job when it comes to forest fires.

“The most exhilarating moments in my firefighting career have been the times where five or six of us firefighters get flown into an initial attack fire in the wilderness and camp on the line after working hard all day long to put it out,” Helleson described.