The Triple Nickel: Black Paratroopers in Washington State, 1945 In-Person

Discover the little-known story of Operation Firefly and the Army's first all-Black paratrooper unit, the "Triple Nickles" (555th Parachute Infantry Battalion) . Presenter Robert L. "Bob" Bartlett shares how these elite soldiers trained with U. S. Forest Service Rangers and became the nation's first airborne firefighters, responding to forest fires across the Pacific Northwest, including the 1945 Mt. Baker fire. In the process of helping to save our forests, they gained military fame as the first all-black “Airborne Infantry Firefighters.” Speaker Bio About Robert L. “Bob” Bartlett Bob (Army, Vietnam War veteran) is the proud second son of Frances Bartlett and the late Walter Bartlett, Sr. (Army Air Corps, WWII veteran) . Bob has nearly 30 years of university teaching and presentation experience in Eastern Washington. He holds two degrees from Colorado Mesa University; a Master’s degree in Sociology from Washington State University, and a Ph. D. in Leadership Studies from Gonzaga University. In 2003 he traveled to South Africa where he served as guest lecturer at the University of Pretoria. He is currently a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Justice Studies at Eastern Washington University. Bartlett currently lives in Spokane.