So. You’re still interested in pursuing this firefighting thing, huh? Well, let’s take a little assessment to determine if you really are cut out for this line of work!

      • I love poison oak and it loves me
      • When sitting around a campfire, I always sit downwind
      • Raking pine needles is something I truly enjoy
      • My stomach is forged from cast-iron and I can gut any meal
      • I chew tobacco, or am interested in learning how
      • Nothing quenches my thirst better than boiling hot water from a canteen
      • Shitting in the woods is a perk of camping, not a drawback
      • The people in my life don’t mind if I disappear for 6 months
      • I’m ok with wearing the same pair of sweat/dirt/ash-stained nomex pants for 14 straight days
      • I look good in yellow
      • Cutting down trees to save the forest makes perfect sense and requires no further explanation
      • Hiking into a burning forest armed with only a pulaski doesn’t seem like the desperate act of a madman
      • I finish most sentences with “Copy That” already
      • I’m interested in a job that combines national service with adventure
      • I will always believe that we’re only two more chains away from tying the line in
      • I realize that 15% of the job is what you see on CNN, and the other 85% involves far-less exciting things
      • They’re not trees and grass – they’re fuel
      • I will not complain when I know everyone else is as miserable, tired, and hungry as I am.
    • Smokey the Bear once told me that only I can prevent forest fires. I will not let him down.

If you answered “Yes” to more than 50% of those questions. I have some good news for you – you made the cut. But barely!