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Reviews
SMOKE JUMPING ON THE WESTERN FIRE LINE: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS DURING WORLD WAR II
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by Mark Matthewsforeword by Senator George McGovern
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| University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 2006. 316 pages. $29.95 cloth. |
| During World War II, over 72,000 draftees applied to the federal government for recognition as conscientious objectors to war. Of those draftees, 12,000 men were assigned to the alternative service system known as Civilian Public Service (CPS). The system eventually consisted of over 150 camps and detached service units across the lower forty-eight states and Puerto Rico. Under the CPS system, Selective Service and three historic peace churches — the Mennonites, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Church of the Brethren — cooperated to provide religious conscience objectors with an alternative to military service. The men who entered CPS expected to serve their country by performing work of national importance and fulfilling their military obligation in a civilian setting. World War II era conscientious objectors (COs) worked at a variety of jobs, maintaining national forests, building roads, laboring on dairy farms, completing sanitary engineering projects, and surveying. Some worked in hospitals for the mentally ill or volunteered as human "guinea pigs" in medical experiments. |
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One of the most dangerous jobs performed by conscientious objectors was smoke jumping for the U.S. Forest Service in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington, and Oregon. In his fascinating book, Mark Matthews tells the story of those men and their work parachuting into remote areas to save hundreds of acres of national and state forests from devastating fires. To tell their story, Matthews uses words of the men themselves, found in published resources and personal memoirs and letters. An appendix at the end of the book reprints the letters one smoke jumper, George H. Robinson, wrote while serving in CPS. The letters give a flavor of the life of conscientious objectors in CPS, the excitement of smoke jumping, and the boredom between fires. |
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In the first four chapters, Matthews recounts the history of conscientious objection in the United States and the hard choices many men had to make about their beliefs during World War II. Although this has been covered elsewhere, Matthews does an exemplary job of summarizing and setting the smoke jumpers' story within historical context. A chapter on the background of smoke jumping before CPS serves as a bridge to the heart of the book, the story of the men who performed their alternative service fighting fires. |
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By spring of 1943, smoke jumping had been approved by the government and CPS administration. Three hundred men at CPS camps applied for the work. Some were eager to prove themselves just as willing to risk their lives for the good of their country as draftees serving in the military. Matthews notes: "If there ever could be a moral equivalent to war, then smoke jumping was it.... the CPSer ... [could] feel as brave as a soldier ... accomplishing an important mission" (p. 265). |
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The first trainees arrived in Missoula, Montana, for "boot camp" and the fire season of summer 1943. The training was rigorous, but the volunteers were eager to learn about parachuting and fire fighting. Matthews conveys the excitement, hard work, and endurance the men experienced in testing their bodies and their nerve. The men learned to care for their parachutes and how to jump, and soon took their first leaps out of planes. In the chapter "Under Fire," there are graphic descriptions of fighting fires with only a pulaski, the ax-hoe used for this work. Some men were injured when jumping and some were hurt by the fires they fought. In between fighting fires, the CPS men repaired their camp buildings, built roads, and kept training. |
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Throughout the CPS system, the men created their own communities. In the smoke-jumping camps, this was especially true. The men were often isolated, training and working together every day. Fire fighting meant that they relied on each other in the most desperate of circumstances, so it was imperative that firm bonds were formed between them. Many relate stories of helping or being rescued by their fellow smoke jumpers. Time off was spent in the same company. The men often had lively discussions about the theory and philosophy of conscientious objection. |
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Not everyone agreed that COs were up to the job of fire-fighting or had the courage to jump out of airplanes. But the CPS men were eager for the challenge and convinced many veteran smoke jumpers that they were not "yellowbellies" — cowards — but men with beliefs against war. Some COs also encountered negative reactions from civilians near their camps. Indeed, even the federal government sometimes failed to supply adequate clothing and proper equipment for their work. |
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The time spent as smoke jumpers changed the lives of these COs. After the war, some men settled in the West, creating lives deeply connected to the land. Others volunteered for relief service in Europe and Asia. Still others returned to school or married, picking up where their lives had stopped before the war. Some CPS men continued a life-long commitment to peace and justice. |
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Matthews notes that most histories of smoke jumping have left out the crucial role conscientious objectors played. Recognition of their role came from professional forest managers who understood how many acres had been saved by their work. "Many of the fires our jumpers suppressed in the nation's most remote wilderness," Matthews writes, "could have become catastrophic had the jumpers not performed expertly" (p. 255). Even as late as 1995, a "definitive" and official history of smoke jumping avoided all mention of the CPS men and the job they had done. Matthews's book begins to overcome this neglect, placing their story back into the history of the country. |
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| Wendy E. Chmielewski
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| Swarthmore College Peace Collection |
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