cold hard winter

These are questions I often answer to when it comes up that I've sold my soul to Uncle Sam for the summer. A summer commitment is typically made sometime in January.

Gila Hotshots are a wildland fire suppression crew based out of Negrito Fire Base in the Gila National Forest of New Mexico.
Before I go further its been brought to my attention over the years that New Mexico and our southern neighbor OLD Mexico get confused by some less traveled Americans. New Mexico is the 47th state in the union. No, we don't speak Spanish there. Many people do speak Spanish and Navajo in NEW Mexico but its still part of our English speaking country. I recommend a map and the inter web if this hasn't gone far enough.
In short a Inter-agency Hotshot Crew (IHC) is a crew of approximately 20 firefighters that are a highly trained hand crew available as a national fire suppression resource.
Another side note... We don't jump out of planes. Smoke jumpers jump out of planes. Occasionally we hitch a ride in a helicopter or fly to a far off fire in a commercial jet. Typically we travel to fires in trucks often called buggies.
The fire season in the South West is April to September. Fires will take us on a "roll" which in full is 14 days of fire fighting with 1-2 days of travel on both ends. Crews go in a rotation to fires outside of the South West Region. New Mexico has 8 Hotshot crews the Southwest (NM & AZ) has a total 20 crews. Nationally there are 110 (I think) Hotshot crews. Originating from many government branches, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Parks and a handful of state/city fire departments.

The End