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Brynolf Hammarstrom ( Missoula 1943 )

posted: Oct 28, 2008

Bryn died July 18, 2008, in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania at age 90. He was born on August 6, 1917, in Ridgewood, New Jersey

He graduated from Wesleyan University in 1939 with a degree in chemistry and was drafted into the Civilian Public Service in 1941.

Bryn was among the first group of CPS jumpers and trained at Seeley Lake with Jim Waite as foreman. "While in training we watched Frank Derry make his last jump. He did not land on the field. A group of military people from Alaska came to Seeley Lake for training to be a search and rescue squad."

Training for the 1944 season was moved to Nine Mile northwest of Missoula. "Florence Wenger went through the training but never made a jump."

After smokejumping he spent two years as a medic in Puerto Rico and, after being discharged, he went to work at a chemist developing floor coverings. In 1970, after extensive rehabilitation work recovering from a bicycle accident, he spent twenty years of volunteer work for many service organizations in his area.