Russell Gorden was a respected member of the aerial firefighting world. He served in air operations on state and federal incident command teams, was a senior member of the Air Attack Course cadre and worked tirelessly to improve safety conditions for firefighting pilots and crews. He began his career with CDF and served as an aircraft mechanic in the Navy from 1968 to 1972. It was here that he discovered his passion for aviation. He returned to firefighting and was soon promoted to air attack captain at Rohnerville Air Base. Russell retired in 2007, after a 41-year career, but continued to serve on a US Forest Service Command Team. He died of job-related ocular melanoma.