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Obituary
Cliff died in 1994, date unknown. In 1946 Cliff, who was the first jumper to report for duty at Cave Junction, was a Master Sergeant in the Paratroopers. He was active in combat jumps over Normandy and Holland. Cliff was also assigned to ground action in the Battle of the Bulge. The 1946 crew at Cave Junction were all veterans of WWII with the majority of them having been paratroopers. In 1947 Cliff became the foreman in charge of the base. From WWII Marine Dick Courson (CJ-46): "Cliff Marshall left CJ in July of 1953. He went to the Parachute Development Center in El Centro, CA. I did find out he was working on the reentry systems for our space program and that he was instrumental in parachute reentry form outer space." From research done by Fred Cooper (NCSB-62): "Information from The Redlands Daily Facts in Redlands, CA for May 1960. Cliff was the Chief Engineer for the 6511 Parachute Test Group in El Centro, CA. They set a new record dropping a 35,000-pound bundle of cargo from a C-130 plane. (The old record was 31,000 pounds by the Royal Air Force.) The drop used six-100 foot chutes and was made from 5,000 feet. This must have been associated with his testing for the space shuttle reentry program. The first suborbital launch was in May 1961, one year after the test in the news article."
Identifier
Marshall_Cliff_Cave-Junction_1946
Publication Date
January 2002
Keywords
Smokejumping; Smokejumpers -- United States; National Smokejumper Association; Wildfire fighters; Obituaries
Disciplines
Forest Management
Recommended Citation
National Smokejumper Association, "Smokejumper Obituary: Marshall, Cliff (Cave Junction 1946)" (2002). Smokejumper Obituaries. 1335.
https://dc.ewu.edu/smokejumper_bios/1335
