Smoke Patrol

When Air Service Chief Crawford informed the second-year foresters that recruits were wanted for the newly formed Smokejumper School, Hank Winton and his buddy Jim Dade grabbed at the chance. Fighting forest blazes by parachute had never before been attempted on a mass scale, and the two young men looked forward eagerly to the adventures they knew were in store for them. And the Air Service was to give them all they had bargained for, and more! There were thrills aplenty - but there were also arduous weeks of training. Hank and Jim understood from the start that there would be incredible hours of calisthenics; training on the obstacle course, the landing pit, jump tower and airplane 'mock up'. Learning to be smokejumpers, they knew, meant acquiring the agility and perfect coordination that were basic for their work. But not even Hank, a senator's son, knew how closely the very existence of their beloved parachute unit was threatened by Senator Thomas Donahue - nor did he dream of the ironic climax that was to affect the lives of the smokejumpers as well as the senator's happiness. You'll live with Hank Winton and Jim Dade through every action-packed moment of their training, from the first day's exhausting tests of endurance to the final dramatic race against the enemy - forest fire. SMOKE PATROL is a clearly drawn picture of a distinguished branch of the Forest Service, as well as an adventure story that will live in the memory of all who read it.