Earl Cooley Dies at 98 – First Smoke Jumper
Earl Cooley knew that the very thought of leaping from airplanes into raging forest fires kept others awake at night. But not him.
“I don’t know why, but I am never afraid to jump”
On July 12, 1940, in a new Forest Service program, Mr. Cooley became one of the first two men to parachute from a plane to fight a forest fire. On his first jump he landed on the top branches of a spruce tree.
Mr. Cooley died at 98 in Missoula, Montana.
(From a NY Times Obituary)
