Earl Cooley

A firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service, in 1940 Cooley volunteered for a new program: "Smokejumper". Cooley and one other man were the first to do it -- to fly over a remote forest fire in an airplane and parachute down to fight the fire. "Our training consisted of a man saying: 'This is your parachute. You know what fire is. We jump tomorrow'," Cooley remembered. He had never been in an airplane before. He did 10 practice jumps, and then he was dispatched to a real fire. The entire "team" consisted of Cooley and Rufus Robinson; Robinson jumped first. Cooley landed in a tree, but climbed down and by morning they had the fire under control. "I don't know why, but I was never afraid to jump," Cooley once said, even though in 1949, a team of 12 smokejumpers he sent in to a Montana fire were killed when the wind shifted, turning their escape route into an inferno. Cooley was exonerated of any wrongdoing, "but I still look at that map and have thought about it every day since then," he said in 1994. The only other thing he didn't like about the job: having to walk out of the fire area when the job was done. Cooley helped found the National Smokejumper Association and served as its first president. He retired from the Forest Service in 1975, and died November 9 at age 98. The First SmokejumpersTaken in Missoula, Mont., 1940: Back row: Glen Smith, Earl Cooley, Merle Lundrigan, Jim Alexander, Chect Derry. Kneeling: Rufus Robinson, Jim Waite, Frank Derry, George Case (district ranger, not a smokejumper), Dick Lynch, Bill Bolen. Their salary: $193 per month. (Photo: National Smokejumper Association) From This is True for 15 November 2009 Suggestions for further reading: The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan Amazon Price: $14.58 Customer Review: Timothy Egan is a talented writer, and his book doesn't lack drama or excitement. THE BIG BURN grippingly recounts the events surrounding the Great Fire of 1910, including the response of the federal government through Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford... Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean Amazon Price: $9.50 Customer Review: This book grabs you, by the heart as well as the mind. I found myself emotionally touched by the stories of those caught in the flames or narrowly escaping them. Maclean's words often connected with me at the gut level. I found myself flipping back... Woodsburner: A Novel by John Pipkin Amazon Price: $16.47 Customer Review: I'm a big fan of Thoreau's writing, and I was looking forward to reading this book. It's rare to see fiction with characters such as Thoreau, and I had read some of the good reviews here, so I was tempted. But near the halfway mark I'm giving up: the... The Thirtymile Fire: A Chronicle of Bravery and Betrayal by John N. Maclean Amazon Price: $11.20 Customer Review: Really a must read for the Squad Boss to the Fire Chief. Not always a fan of the author, but without his book many of the details of this tragedy would never have been told. This story needed to be told. I retired as a fire manager in 2004,... Jumping Fire: A Smokejumper's Memoir of Fighting Wildfire by Murry A. Taylor Amazon Price: $10.08 Customer Review: This book is more devoted to lamenting over failed relationships than earning our respect for a respectful occupation. The only page turning that was going on was flipping past all the frivolous sexploits and side-jinks that belonged in a man's vers... Newsfeed display by CaRP

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