The Western news. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1933-current, 1944-12-14
Earl Cooley
Written Up
In Collier 5
Figures Prominently in
Article on Forest
Service Smoke Jumpers.
CAN RELATE MANY
EXCITING EXPERIENCES

CAN RELATE MANY
EXCITING EXPERIENCES
Earl Cooley keeps the trainees
bug-eyed after hours with tales of
his experiences in various fire
jumps. There's one jump I'll never
forget" he'll start out. II came in
over some tall timber and was
weaving around heading for the
short stuff when hit the top of
tree smack across my chest
Those are the opening sentences
in a paragraph picked from an ar
ticle, Trouble Chuters," in the De-
cember Is issue Of Golfers. The
Earl Cooley referred to is now
citizen Of Libby, having recently
removed here from Missoula and
where he now holds a position as
assistant to Howard E. Ahlskog in
charge of timber sales for the Koo-
tenai national forest.
The article is most interesting
one and tells the work being done
by the forest service in fire fight
ing by using men dropped from
planes onto fire areas in inaccessi-
BILE places Cooley's story continues.
AS / struck the tree the chute
collapsed right then, and | started
rolling down through the branch
es-came down SO fast they broke
away. The chute opened for a mo-
ment and caught on a branch. Only
the branch broke, and the chute
collapsed second time I was still
coming down through the timber
and trying to kick the trunk so I
would clear a sharp stump below.
BY this time I'd run out Of branch
es and was falling free, when the
last limb had rolled off snagged
the chute, and pulled short with
my feet just off the ground
How high were you when YOU
started, Earl?" asked one of the
boys.
About hundred and fifteen
feet"
We'll, what happens when you
run out Of branches"
That's when you want to be sure
and put your hand in your pocket"
Earl said solemnly.
Why"
Because that's when you'll want
to reach in for that card Mother
said to send her if anything hap
pened"
During eight seasons with the
Forest Service Cooley has acquired
good stock of tall tales that stick
pretty much to fact He started in
as lookout and fireguard and
worked up to foreman of parachute
squads. In winter he attended the
Montana School of Forestry until
his graduation in 194l."
Following is the way the article
opens:
THE plane circled the flaming
bulIs-eye Of burning timber and
sWirling smoke, flew wide to gain
altitude in the thin mountain air,
and came in again. The smoke
jumpers, crouched in the open door
of the plane, signaled for the motors
to be cut before they stepped off
above sea Of dense timber.A Their
parachutes bloomed.
THE lines of one chute fouled
behind the jumpers head. He
fought to straighten them out as he
plummeted toward the tall timDer.
By the time the lines were in Or
der, ne was smashing through net
work of branches. The canopy
crowned on treetop, slamming the
man against its trunk. Before he
stopped swinging, he was fumbling
IN pocket on his right pants leg.
a hundred-foot rope snaked to the
ground and the man slid down it,
Earl Cooley had just completed
the first organized fire jump in the
United States, but he was too busy
retrieving the fire-fighting equip
ment being dropped from the plane
and joining forces with Rufus Rob-
lnson to think about anything more
than getting this fire in the Idaho
back country under control.
"A few days later, another smoke
jumper made the first air-crash
rescue jump to plane which had
cracked up while dropping cargo to
a fire camp in the same region. Chef
Derry landed close to the crash,
found the pilot dead and the cargo
dropper seriously injured. He ra-
diced for medicine, food and bed
ding. Two days later pack string
which had fought dense timber and
some of the toughest country in the
Rocky Mountains to reach the in
jured man found him comfortable. |
well tended and physically able to
stand the rugged trip out to civiliza-
ton. II Derry had not been able to
give him quick first aid, the man
probably would not now be COM
pletely recovered"
The writer of the article, Dale
White of Butte, quotes another
jumper, Cochran, who jumped on
the High Lake fire in 1912, which
still stands as an example of smoke
jumping at its toughest.
THE fire broke out in the rough /
est part Of the Bitterroot range near
the Montana-Idaho line. Three sides
of sheer rock walls broken with !
thick bluffs of timber dropped off |
to deep mountain lake about /
quarter-mile wide and a half-mile