One hundred Indian firefighters from Eastern Montana were flown to Longview, Texas, Wednesday to join a massive search for debris from the space shuttle Columbia.

The men and women will spend up to a month scouring the forests, fields and swamps along the Texas-Louisiana border. They will work 12 hour days, walking precise grid patterns 10 feet apart searching for any speck of the fallen space ship.

The call for crews was issued Friday by federal officials. Within an hour, most of the rosters were filled. The chance to earn a minimum of $11.22 an hour during the off-season was one motivation, but not the only one, said Mario Pretty Boy, a crew boss from Lame Deer.

"It's a chance to help the country," he said, as the men and women of his crew organized their 65-pound packs at Billings Logan International Airport Wednesday afternoon.

The Eastern Montana task force is part of 600 firefighters from Montana and Northern Idaho being sent to Texas this week, said

Colleen Finneman, spokeswoman for the Interagency Northern Rockies Coordination Center in Missoula. Soldiers and law enforcement officers were among the first organized teams of wreckage searchers after the shuttle disintegrated Feb. 1 high above Texas.

"They were using National Guard crews. They got pulled back to deal with military issues at hand. They need assistance," Finneman said.

The U.S. space program is on hold until the cause of the disaster is found.

Wildland firefighters from a variety of federal agencies have been asked by the Office of Homeland Security to help with the search effort. The call-up is the first major test of the Office of Homeland Security, according Ken Arney, an official with the Southern Region of the U.S. Forest Service.

"A manned space station is still orbiting. We shouldn't need any more motivation to get this job done," Arney wrote in a message to firefighters.

Nature is adding to the time pressure. The wreckage will be obscured by leaves and green grass within a month.

Although the mission is unusual, the firefighters are experienced in search work, said Mike LeBrun, acting fire management officer in the Billings office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. After wildfires are controlled, firefighters spend days and weeks canvassing burned acres searching for lingering embers.

"Our people have been trained to systematically cover an area by gridding," he said. "They're used to working as a crew and covering large areas and not getting into a helter-skelter situation where they are missing things."

The Eastern Montana firefighters were in an upbeat mood as they secured their gear for departure on a chartered commercial jet. The Fort Peck Tribes are sending 30 firefighters, 20 are from the Northern Cheyenne Reservation and 50 have been sent from the Crow Reservation.

All are members of experienced Bureau of Indian Affairs Type-II fire incident crews, said Jean Claybo, spokeswoman for the Billings Interagency Dispatch Center. Five BIA crews were also sent from Great Falls Wednesday. The Type-II crews were selected because the assignment is considered arduous duty, Claybo said. "The crews are tough, really tough."

The firefighters say they are motivated by a mixture of patriotism, love of adventure and a desire for a fat paycheck.

"It's kind of cool being a part of history," said Weaver Beartusk, of Lame Deer.

Randy Firemoon Sr., of Poplar, earns his living fighting summertime fires. Unemployment tops 60 percent during the winter on most reservations in Eastern Montana. The February call-up was a welcome surprise for many of the firefighters, Firemoon said.

"This is really going to help everybody out. This is like a bonus," he said. "Everybody's itching to go."

The motels in East Texas are already filled with searchers, so the incoming firefighters will be living in fire camp settings for up to 30 days. The firefighters are being asked to bring tents, sleeping bags and waterproof boots.

The work is expected to be tedious, but not tough. The firefighters won't have to carry heavy tools and water bladders or hike up high-elevation mountain sides.

About the only hazards, according to a briefing sheet supplied by the U.S. Forest Service, will be lyme disease-bearing ticks, venomous snakes and alligators. Luckily, the cool weather keeps alligators sluggish this time of year, the briefing states, but the firefighters are warned, "Watch where you put your hands."

Compared to a forest full of burning trees, the trip to Texas will be spring break for some of Montana's Indian firefighters.

"This is exciting," said James Bellrock Jr. of Pryor. "We get to see new scenery, it's money in the pocket, plus, they need some help. We get to serve our country in the great state of Texas."