When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon in 1969 Bruce Smith didn't know about it.
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He was in the jungles of Vietnam as an infantryman with the 5th RAR, where news of world events didn't reach.
Bruce worked in Sydney as a die cutter until he moving to Cootamundra 10 years ago.
In retirement he's gone back to fighting in the middle of forests - but his enemy now is the fires that have been burning over huge tracts of northern NSW.
At the request of fire HQ, Bruce drove one of Cootamundra Rural Fire Service's fleet of four trucks to Dubbo on Wednesday September 4 and joined up with others heading for a fire in the Guy Fawkes River National Park, near Dorrigo.
Now 71, Bruce was reminded of the 1969 moon landing when the coach bringing him back to Dubbo this Tuesday went past "the dish" radiotelescope at Parkes, which transmitted the TV pictures of the first half hour of the landing to the world.
Bruce has now completed two tours of duty in northern NSW, typically taking him seven days each with four days of travelling and three days of intensive firefighting at the front. Shifts are 12 hours but sometimes 16-18 hours because "you can't just leave" when a fire is threatening property.
While the crews have been working hard, the vehicles have had no break: as soon as they return to the camp at Dorrigo, they are replenished and another crew jumps in and takes off, meaning the Cootamundra truck has been in use 24/7.
The five-truck strike force of which the Coota truck has been a member has saved numerous properties in the area, especially the village of Dundurrabin, 30km from Dorrigo, also dubbed "Hippyville", which was saved in its entirety.