In May 1950, G.W. Chapman was 20 years old, and little did he know, his actions to save a small bear cub would change the course of U.S. Forest Service history.
Chapman was born in Carrizozo and graduated from high school there in 1948. After graduation he joined the U.S. Forest Service for his first job.
''That was about the first job offer I had,'' Chapman said.
The job involved performing maintenance on roads and cattle guards.
''Anything out in the forest,'' said Chapman, ''we took care of it. But we were on call for fire all the time.''
Chapman and his fellow employees were working on a bridge when they got the call to attend to a fire near Capitan. Near the end of the main fire, Chapman said, 20 men were dispatched to a small canyon where the fire was still strong. The men were doing well, he said, until the wind picked up.
''We were doing pretty good until the wind got up to 50 miles per hour,'' said Chapman. ''The fire got up in the top of the trees.''
After realizing the fire was coming their way, the men went to a rock slide and, covering their mouths with their handkerchiefs, lay face down and waited for the fire to pass.
''The Capitan Mountains are pretty rugged,'' said Chapman, ''We laid there about an hour. The fire just burned around the rockslide. We watched each other, if our clothes caught fire, we put it out.''
When the fire died down, Chapman said, the men counted each other.
''To see if we was all still alive, you know,'' said Chapman.
As they surveyed the devastation the fire had caused, Chapman said he heard a sound.
''It sounded like crying,'' Chapman said, ''like a kitten.''
Following the sound to a tree on the edge of the rock slide, Chapman spotted a bear cub not too far up on the tree.
It wasn't too hard for Chapman to pull him down from the tree.
''I think he was kind of anxious to get off of there,'' said Chapman, laughing.
Once he pulled the bear cub loose, Chapman wrapped it in his jacket and carried it down to base camp to be treated.
''His feet were burned some and his rear end where the flames had come up the tree,'' said Chapman.
But there was no doubt that the bear would survive.
Other animals hadn't fared as well, however.
''There were lots of dead animals around,'' Chapman said. ''People don't realize that when there's a fire, animals sometimes get so excited they can run right into it. All the little animals, like the squirrels, got burned up.''
When the bear arrived at the fire base camp, he was taken to the game warden, who treated his burns. The men in the camp then worked to handle the bear's other needs. Because he was so young _ they guessed his age at three months _ he wasn't able to forage for himself.
''We didn't have any babies in the camp,'' said Chapman, ''so we took a glove and put in some Pablum, honey and milk. We put holes in the fingers and gave it to him. I guess the little bear really thought it was his mother because he really ate.''
After that the bear moved in with the game warden's family for a time, but the bear, being a wild animal, didn't stay long.
''After two or three weeks,'' said Chapman, ''and his feet got well, he'd whip the family dog, turned over the chairs in the house. The game department had no way to keep little bears. And they were sure he wouldn't survive because he was so small. So they made a deal with the U.S. Forest Service. They took it (the bear) and flew it to Washington D.C.''
It was the beginning of the forest service's biggest publicity campaign.
''He's probably the best known icon in the world,'' Chapman said, laughing.
As the bear cub, now called Smokey Bear, made his way to television shows and publicity events, Chapman went back to his life.
He worked for the U.S. Forest Service for two years, then transferred to Holloman Air Force Base where he worked as a heavy equipment operator and engineering technician until 1977.
After a stretch in Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska as a repair and maintenance estimator. In 1984, he retired after 35 years of civilian service.
Chapman and his wife, Vada, were married in June 1950, using the $300 Chapman had received for working on the Capitan fire.
Though busy with his family, which includes sons Gary, Larry and David, and daughter, Debbie, Chapman continued his love of the forest. And on occasion, his thoughts strayed back to the little bear who had become so famous.
This summer Chapman was honored by the Smithsonian Institution when he was asked to participate in the 2005 Folklife Festival on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
And just as he brought a small bear cub back to the fire base camp in May 1950, Chapman brought a small wooden bear with him on his trip to the nation's capital in 2005. The bear, with a plaque carved with Chapman's name, was presented to U.S. Forest Service headquarters.
