Few are brave enough to fly 10,000 feet in the air, parachute jump out into an unknown forest only to touch land and fight a raging forest fire. For longtime Wenatchee resident and author Gene Jessup, it was just another day on the job.
Jessup was a smokejumper for the North Cascades Smokejumper Base in the late 1950s and ‘60s. A smokejumper is a trained firefighter who provides rapid fire response by parachuting to the source of the fire, usually in the high mountains. Now 82, he reminisces on the adventures, dangers and camaraderie of the job in his new book, “Between Heaven and Earth: The Adventures of a Smokejumper.” The book is available online at Barnes and Noble and Amazon in both paperback and Kindle edition.
The Wenatchee World spoke to Jessup about the occupation, having his brother as a jump partner and his novel.