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MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — The National Smokejumper Association is holding its 75th anniversary celebration in Missoula next month.
The three-day gathering will focus on the thousands of missions since the first smokejumpers jumped close to a wildfire on the Nez Perce National Forest in Idaho on July 12, 1940.
Among those missions was the secret work smokejumpers did in the past for the Central Intelligence Agency around the world.
Smokejumper reunion spokesman Bob McKean tells the Missoulian (http://bit.ly/1KO4GyH) that smokejumpers had a skill for landing in inaccessible areas and dropping cargo to those areas that was valuable for the covert work.
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Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com
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