BACKBONE CONTRIBUTOR HIGHLIGHT - AMANDA MONTHEI I was a seasonal, 1039 employee for the Forest Service who worked on a Hotshot crew for six months a year. You usually hear about us in August and then forget about us the rest of the year—and that's okay because the attention freaks us out anyway. In August, you hear about fires—you stay privy to evacuation warnings and watch the news tirelessly for updates, and you stay inside when the inversion pushes smoke into the valley where you live. You hope the fire doesn't affect the lands you love, the community you call home, or, God forbid, your home and family. You put your trust in us. And yet, many don't really know what it is we do day in and day out. On many Hotshot crews—the one I was on included—ending up in a newspaper or on TV is grounds for buying the whole crew beers. It's not a punishment so much as a collective, cultural acknowledgment of the fact that we prefer our presence to be unseen, for our work to speak for itself. Afte...