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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (July 5, 1959)
2 MAIL TRIBUNE, Mdf0,j, Q,. Sunday, July S, 1939 Train at inject SmokejumpeirS' Near ave iJuncfitin . 'if .&jT 1 .otf Physical Training Included In U.S. Forest Service Program GOING DOWN. SIR?-Tower jumps are row) comes to the end of his rope he'll an important part of a smoke jumper's train- ' feel approximately the same jolt as when ing. Eight hours of tower jumping are given his parachute opens in the air. Pointing new jumpers and they help separate , the just above him, is Al Boucher, smoke men from the boys. When this jumper (ar- jumper foreman. ' Canadian Tops In Pole Climbing Albany-flJPD - A Canadian speed demon went up and down a 100-foot pole in 46 seconds Friday as a highlight of the opening of the annual Albany Timber , Carnvial at Timber-Linn Park here. A parade preceded the event. . Lanny Sailor of North Sur rey, B.C., took first pce a the speed-climbing event, one of five in the first round. Loggers from as far as Con necticut and Alaska entered ' for the championships, which end Monday. In other action Friday that drew a crowd of about 10,000, Gus Russell, Otis, won the long-chopping by halving a 14 inch log in 53 Vz seconds. His own world mark is 30.6 sec onds. - Kelly Stanley, Kosmos, Wash., placed first in the ax throwing; Paul Searles, Tout le, Wash., was tops in log bucking and Jubiel Wickheim of Victoria, B.C., lead others in log-rolling. OEA Settles For 'Fair Play' St. Louis, Mo. (UPD-The dele gates from Oregon to the Na tional Education association convention here Friday were defeated four times in their at tempts to draft a . tougher school integration resolution The session, led by dele gates from the South, turned back a total of six attempts to put the association firmly against segregation. Maryland and New York delegations al so tried futilely to draft stern resolutions. . The convention finally adopted a watered-down ver sion calling for an approach to the problem in a "spirit of fair play, good will and re spect f or.law." v Sweet Home ist Killed I Cycl . .Sweet Home (UPD-A 10-year- old boy was killed near Sweet Home Friday when he was hit by a car as he rode a bicycle out of a driveway. Killed was Carma Adams, son of Mr. and Mrs. Elmer Adams of Foster. Stanley George Gambetty, 42, Sweet Home, who was driving, said he did not see the boy. Gambetty's 17-year-old son Frank, who was also in the car said he saw. the bicyclist but had no time to yell a warning before the collision. SUITED UP-Wearing all this equipment it's not easy to climb into the plane but you'd probably 'think it was a lot harder to jump out. The same door serves for both purposes. The parachute straps on the jumper's back and the spare chute over his stomach. Norm Pawlowski is carrying a mo bile radio under the spare chute, .'although it is not visible here. The football-type helmet with fire grid is standard equipment, to protect against head and face injuries. FIVE O'CLOCK JUMP-Falling feet first from 1,500 feet this smokejumper has just stepped out for his early morning pick-me-up. Or is it let-me-down? At any rate, he's on his way. The only thing keeping him from a sudden stop is his parachute, still unfurling behind him. This was his third training jump. When the chute opens, it will have a 32-foot diameter. Br RON ABELL Mail Tribune Staff Writer It's 5 in the morning and a steady blast of cold air rushes through the open door of the small airplane. At 1,000 feet you swallow hard and try to smile as you watch the hori zon tilt drunkenly from side to side. Beneath you the for ested hills spread and flatten until individual trees lose their identity and they melt into a rugged green corruga tion. At 1,500 feet the plane levels off. You're with a training crew of U.S. forest service smoke- jumperi. You've got a parachute strapped - on your back-for safety-and it's cramped inside the small twin-engine Beech- craft. Beside yourself there are four jumpers and a "spot ter" inside the body of the plane. You can reach out and touch any one of them. Telephone Used A pilot and co-pilot are in the cockpit, six feet away, but the noise of the motors neces sitates the use of a telephone between them and the spotter. Two of the jumpers are sit ting on the floor at your feet and two are next to you on the short bench. At a motion from the spotter the nearest jumper slides over and kneels just inside the door. He puts foot outside and waits, tense. The plane passes over flat meadow and the pilot cuts the motors. You're go ing 80 m.p.h. but it feels as if you've suddenly stopped Only the cold rush of air gives you the feeling of motion, "Go!" The spotter slaps the jump er on the shoulder and the jumper steps out into space and disappears. It's that sim ple. His static line plays out, opening his chute, and the plane increases - speed and starts to bank. In a moment you can see the red and white canopy drifting down to the landing meadow. Second Jumper As you circle back, another jumper starts to move over to the door and far below you can see a parachute collapse as the first jumper lands safe ly on the ground. The warm ing rays of the morning sun wink off the wingtip of the plane and you begin to loosen up. you tninfc it mignt De fun to jump. 1 Meanwhile, down on the ground, a small crowd has collected to watch the jump ers in action. This is the third day of jumping for the new men, wno nave to complete seven training jumps before they're allowed to go out on fires. Two and a half weeks of intense training and condi tioning have preceded their first jump and they handle themselves well. But they're having trouble hitting the mark this morning because it's windy. The ground foreman is in contact .with the plane by mo bile radio and he decides to call the jumping off because of -the wind. The men who have already jumped are col lecting their gear and walking back through the field. There's a truck waiting to take them -back to the base and you're invited to come along for breakfast. It's only 7'a.m. but you've been up for three hours and you accept the invitation. ... Besides, you. want to learn more about these smokejump ers. What sort of work do they do? Select Group The smokeiumpers are a; select group of young men. Of the thousands of fire fight ers who work in national for ests during the summer, only 320 are smokejumpers. They are stationed at one of the five bases where they get their training. Their job is fire suppres sion in areas that are relative ly inaccessible from . the ground. In minutes, a smoke jumping crew can fly into an area that would take a ground crew hours to reach. They are hit - and - run specialists sel dom called out on a big fire, they perform invaluable serv ice in small isolated fires. Almost all of the fires they are called to are caused by lightning strikes. The smoke jumpers' value derives from the fact that they can fly in quickly and suppress the fire before it spreads. Often they are relieved by a ground crew after they've done the primary suppression. Any one of the fires they're called to could spread into a major conflagration if it wasn't contained in time. The smokejumpers are cracker- jack lire-fighters with a "plus" , value-they're trained m getting to fires the fast and hard way: from the air. It takes courage, condition ing, and training. South of Cave Junction In Josephine county Just south of Cave Junction, 63 miles from Medford, is ythe Siskiyou smokejumper base. With a complement of 30 men, it's the only such base in Oregon. Nestled in the Il linois valley about 10 miles north of the California border, the Siskiyou base can send a crew of smokejumpers out In 15 minutes' notice. In an aver age season 111' jumps will be made at 35 fires. Each man will make 10 jumps and there will be an average of three men sent to each fire After salaries and operating expenses are deducted they will save taxpayers an estim ated $125,000 in timber saved through their efforts Project air officer at the Siskiyou base is 35-year-old Jim Allen. Jim was a combat paratrooper during World War II and has been with the forest service since 1946. He's the man with the facts and figures. If you accepted your break fast invitation and sat down for a talk with Jim you'd learn a lot about smokejump- mg. First Fire Jump in 1940 You'd find out that the first fire jump was made in Mon tana in 1940, the summer aft er experimental work was begun in Washington. Now, 20 years later, over 30,000 jumps have been made with out a fatality incurred while jumping. The largest smokejumper base is at Missoula, Mont., with 150 men. A base at Mc Call, Idaho, has 80 men. The Okanogan base at Winthrop, Wash., has 36 men. , The Siskiyou base has 30 men and a base at Redding, Calif., has 24 men. A base at Silver City, N. M., draws men from the other units during the short fire season there. , In addition to these U.S. forest service bases, the bu reau of land management maintains a 16-man base at Fairbanks, Alaska and that accounts for all the smoke jumpers in the United States. Taking the Siskiyou base as representative, you'd learn that its primary jump area includes the Siskiyou, Rogue River, Umpqua, Willamette, Deschutes, Mt. Hood, and Siuslaw national forests. Siskiyou jumpers have gone as far south as Sequoia Na tional jterk in California, however, and as far north as the Canadian line. They jump only in state and national forests. Man Treated After One Vehicle Crash Bernard Schieber, 27, of box 312, Talent, was treated for scratches at Ashland Gen eral hospital Friday follow ing an accident involving the pickup truck he was driving on Hendricks rd. According to state police Scheiber was eastbound on Hendricks rd. when the truck traveled onto the south should er of the highway. The vehicle then cut diagonally across the highway before clipping off a power pole. The impact turn ed the truck over, police re ported, although the- vehicle skidded an additional 127 feet on .its top before stopping. Police said that they are signing a complaint against Schieber charging him with violation of the basic rule. Drowning Victim's Body is Recovered Portland (DPD - The body of 40-year-old Ralph E. Devlin, who drowned Wednesday night when he fell overboard from a pleasure cruiser in the Willamette river south of the Ross Inland bridge, was re covered here Friday afternoon by harbor police. The body was located a short distance from where he fell into the water. A search was still under day for the body of 25-year-old Roger Hankin, a gillnet fish erman from route 3, Bonne ville.' Hankin was believed to have drowned early Thursday in the Columbia- river near Dobson where he apparently fell overboard when his boat struck a wave in the turbu lent water. What sort of men are the smokejumpers? Athletic Equipment A tour of the grounds at Sjskiyou would give you an idea. An outdoor athletic area contains punching bags, weights, chinning bars, a bas ketball court and a volleyball court, Adjoining this area is the training area, complete with ropes, a tower, a trampoline, an obstacle course, and other training apparatus. Physical fitness is of prim ary importance. The condi tioning of the smokejumpers isn't just excellent; it's su perb. They have to be tough and limber to absorb the bumps and knocks of parachuting and then do the shoveling and chopping work of fire-fighting. When their work is done they face a hike out of thl area, to the nearest road, that might be anywhere, from a half-mile to 10 miles or more. On this hike they bring their equipment back with them. The longest back-pack Jim can recall was 40 milesi Fire Pack With a fire pack (dropped individually to each man), jumping suit, parachute and spare chute, first-aid kit, pro tective hat, and canteen, the equipment weighs a minimum of 70 pounds. It often goes over 100 pounds. It's no wonder the new smokejumpers get 20 hours of physical conditioning during their training. They also get over 50 hours of fire-suppression training, including three days of guard school. At guard school they work with fire-fighters from the entire Siskiyou forest. Their training calls for 10 hours of first aid. They get 60 hours of jump training, including tower jumps, chute manipulation, tree climbing, and chufe re trieving. New Men Sixteen new men were ac cepted for training this sea son at Siskiyou-out of 160 applicants. Jim Allen and his foreman, Al Boucher, can af ford to be selective. They pick the men who appear to be the cream of the crop. And they guess consistent ly well;, their drop-out rate only runs about 10 per cent, "We prefer men who are first-year college men," Jim said. "About 60 to 70 per cent of our new men will return the following year and we like to get them early so they can stay with us for a few seasons He explained that when the men finish college, perm anent employment usually takes them away from smoke- jumping. Qualifications Men accepted for smoke jumper training must have had one season of fire sup pression work. They must be between 18. and 28 years old, be in sound physical health (mcluding eyesight and hear ing), -and meet height and weight requirements. Training this year runs from June 15 to July 13. By the 13th the new men will be qualified jumpers, bring ing the total number of ready jumpers to 30. They live, sleep and eat at the base. They can be airborne fifteen minutes after they're notified of a fire. Boucher says, "Our cooks are our proudest possessions. They work seven days a week for the whole summer and we're really proud of the meals they give the men." Flying the twin -engine Beechcraft this season is a new man with the forest serv ice, Dick Foy of 2764 Orchard Home dr., Medford. Dick and his wife, Peggie, live next to the base. Pay of $2 Per Hour The men themselves show an enthusiasm for the work that goes beyond the limits of the job. You know they like it when you hear that their average pay rate is $2 an hour. It's slightly higher ALL THAT? - Here Norm Pawlowski (center) of Jacksonville looks at the equip ment he'll have to pack out on his back when he's through suppressing a fire. Al Boucher (left) and Jim Allen, project air officer, look on" sympathetically. Fire pack (standing, under Allen's arm) is dropped individually to' jumpers. Its contents are displayed in front of it, resting on dis-' for the experienced men, slightly lower for the new men. Out of this is deducted $1 a meal and $5 a month for quarters. Overtime is paid at the regular rate. They'll nev er get rich at smokejumping. But they still get men from all over the country who are anxious to train at the base, This season they have men from as far away as Iowa but Jim said this year is excep tional' for having a high per centage of men from the West coast. The most local smokejump er is Norm Pawlowski of Jacksonville. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Pawlow ski, live at route 1, box 8. Norm is a student at South ern Oregon college. Three of the men are from Grants Pass and the majority of the others are from Ore gon and California. Serious Workers j The men are serious about their work, but not fright ened. Allen explained that the best safety device is thorough training, and the men get plenty of that. Jim Said that smokejumper training differs from Army paratrooper training in that it's more intense, and because the men are trained to be "spot-jumpers." Guide lines i on the parachutes enable them to control the direction of their descent, to a degree, and they become adept at landing where they want to rather than where the wind carries them. ., Although the training jumps are made into a landing field, actual fire jumps are usually made into timber. The men carry, as part .of their gear, a 100-foot let-down rope that they use to slide to the ground posable paper sleeping bag. Jump suit and coiled let-down rope are at left. Parachute is at Allen's feet and spare chute is in front of it. The twin-engine U. S. forest service plane is behind them. The fire pack gear includes shovel, fire-ax, canteen, protective hat, two-days rations. When he's not at the jump base Norm is a junior at Southern Oregon college. iSk & 111 If 1 & if) ;f ffl ft llrf"'" ill t&0?t I HANGING-Four hours of training are given to chute man ipulation. Here Norm Pawlowski demonstrates how a jumper can control the direction of his flight by pulling on one of the two guide, lines attached to the chute. The large pouch on his right trouser leg contains a 100-foot "let-down" rope, used by jumpers to make a descent if their chute gets caught in a tree. when their chute gets caught in a tree. They say you'll never know what it feels like to jump un til you do it yourself. AH you can do is take the word of a smokejumper who looks around while he kneels by the open door of the plane, before he steps out into the void. "It's a wonderful feeling," he says. And it's a wonderful serv ice that this group of finely tuned young men provide. CORN REMOVER Gv initont rM horn poia and pad. href? nmoft kard corn, toft conw btw tfc to. cbIIoum, worts, papillomas, dvfc Milt. It contains taw. ral oifre ttUt ttiot loftan, loof and de no aaws tk irrilotion as oa strong acid mixtvrat. Whoa al otWs hovu failod sty tWt an. Try cur twniea llif, wfciek rviitxro pain, sorofwts, swelling first er tocond application Both remedies said an Money bock guarantee. Exclusively at WESTERN THRIFT Progress Yes, slow but sure. The flag pole was completed this week. We are now gwaifing the bronze Veterans Memorials for each branch of the armed forces to be installed on the base. The water problem is whipped with a giving us an additional 3000 gallons an 100' well drilled by Mr. Gribble M hour. I Bill Driscoll your host today, 1 to 5 p.m. . I I mcbestapark I ISSSSS Bill Driscoll, manager North Phoenix Road . Phone SP 3-6162 or SP 2-71 11 ' , M
