10-4 Magazine / February 2026 23 Andy’s grandson. The logging portion of the business has been downsized, and farming now dominates most of their operation, covering about 5,000 acres, with much of it being rice. Over the years, they sold some of their vast amounts of land, but today they are in the process of buying much of it back. The helicopter division, which started in 1975 as Siller Bros. Aviation, came about because environmentalists didn’t want the ground to get trampled through traditional logging practices. Eventually becoming Siller Helicopters, the scope of their aviation work came to include firefighting and construction, along with the logging. They sold this division last year to Helicopter Express in Georgia. I would like to thank Lee Kinzer, Dave Marciel, and Jim Staas for talking to me several times over the past few weeks and sharing their stories with me. Jim hired and trained his replacement, Chris Witman, who is currently the Truck Boss at Siller Bros. but is set to take Jim’s position when Jim finally decides to completely retire or his health doesn’t allow him to work. Lee’s truck currently has about 4,800 miles on it, and Dave’s has about 850, making these two Peterbilt 353s rare finds. Preserving history is important, and the older I get, the more I understand why. n EDITOR’S NOTE: Thanks to Lee Kinzer for providing the older photos.
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