In early 1942 May asked for volunteers from his civilian servicing crew , and about a dozen agreed to join . With basically no equipment , the instruction consisted of " jump and pull " and windage was calculated by throwing an Eaton 's catalogue out the door . Early operations were comical , but in early 1943 May sent two volunteers , Owen Hargreaves and Scotty Thompson to the smoke jumpers school in Missoula , Montana to be trained by the U.S. Forest Service . After six weeks they returned home with borrowed steerable equipment to train two other volunteers , Wilfred Rivet and Laurie Poulsom . Soon the unit was conducting operational jumps , and by 1944 May 's persistence had paid off and an official para-rescue training program started . For his work , May was awarded a Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm in 1947 by the USAAF
Medal of Freedom
Medal of Freedom (1945)
United States Air Force Pararescue