CSPAN3 Missoula Smokejumpers July 14, 2024
Smoke jumping started in 1939. The reason it came about, there were fires in the middle of nowhere. They had to hike guys into the fire spread by the time they got there, it would be 1000 acres. They needed guys to get to the fires quickly. The goal of the smokejumper is to jump into wildfires. Payload range, thats the motto. They did a bunch of tests in 1939. The first fire jump was 1940. That went well. They continued from there. There are nine smokejumper bases in the western united states. T...
Source: archive.org