A Pioneering Smokejumper in a Career Marked by Tragedy
On the afternoon of July 12, 1940, Earl Cooley jumped out of an airplane and into history by parachuting to fight an Idaho forest fire, as part of the first team of smokejumpers.
Mr. Cooley, who died Nov. 9 at age 98, went on to become the superintendent of the U.S. Forest Service's first squad of smokejumpers, based in Montana. During World War II, he trained Mennonites and Quakers, conscientious objectors who became smokejumpers for the Forest Service instead of soldiers.
But what had been a casualty-free career took a darker turn when Mr. Cooley was the airborne supervisor who directed a crew of smokejumpers who dropped in to fight the Mann Gulch fire of Aug. 5, 1949, at the Helena National Forest in Montana. Twelve smokejumpers died after the fire unexpectedly worsened, the first fatalities in the new service.
The tragedy became the subject of Norman Maclean's 1992 book, "Young Men and Fire." Mr. Cooley, Mr. Maclean wrote, was "the only smokejumper I ever heard say, 'I don't know why but I was never afraid to jump. It keeps others awake at night.' "
One of 11 children born to homesteaders outside of Hardin, Mont., Mr. Cooley grew up fishing and hunting, and started working for the Forest Service in 1937.
With some of the nation's largest forests, Montana and the Pacific Northwest were plagued with forest fires, many caused by lightning strikes. Although Forest Service officials knew they could minimize damage by getting to fires early, the agency had so far rejected the idea of smokejumpers, who could dig trenches and cut down trees to halt a blaze's spread.
"The best information I can get from experienced fliers is that all parachute jumpers are more or less crazy -- just a little bit unbalanced, otherwise they wouldn't be engaged in such a hazardous undertaking," wrote a regional administrator in 1935.
But in 1939, the Forest Service changed course, and Mr. Cooley was one of the first applicants accepted for smokejumper training. He was still fairly inexperienced when he was called to fight his first fire in 1940.
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Mr. Cooley, who died Nov. 9 at age 98, went on to become the superintendent of the U.S. Forest Service's first squad of smokejumpers, based in Montana. During World War II, he trained Mennonites and Quakers, conscientious objectors who became smokejumpers for the Forest Service instead of soldiers.
But what had been a casualty-free career took a darker turn when Mr. Cooley was the airborne supervisor who directed a crew of smokejumpers who dropped in to fight the Mann Gulch fire of Aug. 5, 1949, at the Helena National Forest in Montana. Twelve smokejumpers died after the fire unexpectedly worsened, the first fatalities in the new service.
The tragedy became the subject of Norman Maclean's 1992 book, "Young Men and Fire." Mr. Cooley, Mr. Maclean wrote, was "the only smokejumper I ever heard say, 'I don't know why but I was never afraid to jump. It keeps others awake at night.' "
One of 11 children born to homesteaders outside of Hardin, Mont., Mr. Cooley grew up fishing and hunting, and started working for the Forest Service in 1937.
With some of the nation's largest forests, Montana and the Pacific Northwest were plagued with forest fires, many caused by lightning strikes. Although Forest Service officials knew they could minimize damage by getting to fires early, the agency had so far rejected the idea of smokejumpers, who could dig trenches and cut down trees to halt a blaze's spread.
"The best information I can get from experienced fliers is that all parachute jumpers are more or less crazy -- just a little bit unbalanced, otherwise they wouldn't be engaged in such a hazardous undertaking," wrote a regional administrator in 1935.
But in 1939, the Forest Service changed course, and Mr. Cooley was one of the first applicants accepted for smokejumper training. He was still fairly inexperienced when he was called to fight his first fire in 1940.