REPORT ON OUR SMOKE JUMPERS REUNION - Page 1

Todays article will deal mainly with what the Smoke Jumpers are all about. Later articles will report on our reunion at Oskaloosa, Iowa and some of my experiences as a Smoke Jumper.

THE BIRTH OF SMOKEJUMPING

Not long after the end of World War 1 in 1918, the Chief Forester for the U.S. Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, contacted the Chief of the Army Air Service--later known as the Army Air Corps--inquiring about the possibility of cooperating with the Forest Service for the purpose of providing aerial fire detection over some of the forests of the Western States.

Col. Hap Arnold, who would later become head of the U.S. Army Air Force during WW II, was in charge of the Western Department of the U.S. Air Service at the time and did much to help initiate aerial fire patrols. The Missoula Sentinel paper of Missoula, Montana on Saturday, May 17, 1919 had this comment: "District No. 5 Establishes Patrol Over Angeles Forest; Will Be Extended, if Successful, as Expected. Officials of District No. 1 of the forest service have received word of the establishment of the first air patrol of national forests, to begin June 1, 1919 making the sky pilot who will give early warning of fires a reality at last.

During the early days of aerial fire patrols some Forest Service officials began thinking about dropping fire fighters by parachutes to fires, but the idea was discarded as being too dangerous and impractical. However, T. V. Pearson, with the Intermountain Region of the Forest Service (Region 4) out of Odgen, Utah in 1934 actually initiated the first experiment in the use of parachutes to drop men on fires. A professional parachutist, J. B. Bruce, made a few demonstration jumps, but the idea was abandoned as being too risky. During this period of barnstorming in the nation many deemed parachutists to be daredevils, crackpots, or crazy, and so the thought of having men jump to fires had little chance of gaining recognition.

Before live jumps were made, dummy drops with 150 pound loads, were made into timbered areas to determine what problems the jumpers might encounter. Then, approximately 60 jumps were made by the assigned Eagle company personnel. Toward the end of the experiments the Forest Service men were allowed to jump into both open and timbered areas. There were no serious injuries.

Much time and energy was spent on developing equipment and parachutes. There were a number of frustrating, agonizing situations that had to be worked out. In the end, the training outfit that was selected consisted of a 30-foot Eagle backpack chute and a 27-foot emergency chestpack chute, with quick-attachable harness. A two-piece felt-padded suit, with a pocket on one trouser leg to hold a rope for letdowns from trees and obstacles, a football helmet with a wire mesh face mask, athletic supporter, ankle braces, a wide leather and elastic belt to protect against back and abdominal injuries, and heavy logger boots completed the jumper outfit and provided protection for the hazards of jumping into timber. It was concluded that Smokejumpers--the name was first suggested by Walt Anderson--could safely land in all types of green timber typical of the Chelan National Forest at altitudes ranging from 2,000 to 6,000 feet. Experimental jumps had also been made into mountain meadows, open ridgetops and on steep, boulder-strewn slopes. The stage was set for the first operational use of smokejumpers in Regions 1 and 6 during 1940.

FIRST TRAINING & PRACTICAL USE

For the new smokejumper programs, beginning operations in 1940, Region 6 was allotted Fiscal Year 1940 funds for the purchase of equipment for both Regions 1 and 6. The purchase of jumping equipment was made by Region 6 from their bid specifications and loft equipment was bought locally by each region. Radios were purchased by Region 6 on bids through the Forest Service Radio Laboratory.

The training site selected was at the Seeley Lake Ranger Station and surrounding areas, located about 35 miles northeast of Missoula, Montana. It was considered to be the ideal site since it was isolated from spectators' interference and aircraft traffic, and had sufficient variations in topography and timber cover to provide for conditions that would be found when parachuting to actual fires. There was a level open area approximately one mile square for first jumps at Blanchard Flats and there weren't any snags, dead-topped trees, rivers or lakes at that location. A Johnson Flying Service single-engine Travel Air--NC 450N--was used for the training jumps and it was flown from Missoula to the Seeley Lake area each day.

The next morning the sky was clear and the Travel Air arrived at Blanchard Flats at 5:00 a.m. Jim Waite made an excellent jump. He was followed by Bill Bolen who jumped from the plane correctly, but had trouble pulling his ripcord and tumbled end-over-end for about 500 feet before getting his parachute open. He suffered a tremendous opening shock from the Eagle chute. Jim Alexander and Earl Cooley were in the second load. As Alexander exited the Travel Air he should have had one hand on the ripcord, but missed. When he did manage to grasp and pull the ripcord, an arm become entangled in the lines, and he suffered a severe sprain and was not able to jump again for several weeks. Earl Cooley was next and climbed out on the step below the door opening, and when Frank Derry said "Go!" he crow-hopped out, and made a superb jump and landing.

Jim Waite and *Earl Cooley(see below) were the only ones of the group to complete all ten training jumps. There were a few injuries. Dick Lynch pulled up his feet, skidded, and landed on his tailbone during one jump. Bill Bolen was dragged by his chute in a strong wind and was badly bruised and scratched.

Training in the Seeley Lake area commenced June 22 and ended July 3 of 1940. The men were considered well-trained and ready for action as fire-fighting smokejumpers, and the same held true for the jumpers at Region 6. The first actual fire jumps in the history of smokejumping were made by Rufus Robinson and Earl Cooley at Marten Creek in the Nez Perce Forest of Region 1 on July 12, 1940. The first jumps in Region 6 took place that year on August 10 when Glenn Smith and Francis Lufkin parachuted to a blaze at Bridge Creek in the Chelan Forest of Washington.

*POINT OF INFORMATION

To give you an idea of how new the concept of fighting fires with Smoke Jumpers. Earl Cooley, was one of four of the original Smoke Jumpers of the training class of 1940. Four years later when I was taking my training at Missoula, Montana he was the Forest Service person in charge of the Smoke Jumpers training for that area.

MOST OF ABOVE INFORMATION WAS TAKEN FROM THE SMOKE JUMPERS WEB PAGE AT:
http://www.smokejumpers.com/Pages/index.html