To my fellow Aerial Firefighters Beginning in 1960 and continuing for 37 years, it was my good fortune to improve my own abilities and make contributions to Fire Bombing as the industry developed over the years. I am now a retired “old timer.” I felt there was a need to have our occupation placed before the public in a way for them to understand and share the great adventure. My purpose in writing Fire Bomber Into Hell was to give the “person-on-the-street” the feel, and an insight into our highs, our lows at the loss of good friends, and our emotions and fears as we did our job immersed in the extraordinary hazards of our working environment. The book is more than just my story; it’s the story of every bomber pilot who sat or presently sits in the same dangerous seat. The book is dedicated: To the Fire Bomber pilots who risk their lives in the service of others. You'll find information about my book Fire Bomber Into Hell on the main AAF website page, it is not technical and I sincerely hope you find it good reading.   Linc Alexander

Fasten your seat belt as you take a front seat beside Linc and fly down tunnels with walls of flame hundreds of feet high, feel the steep dives and the turbulence of rotor winds so severe that it has torn airliners and Fire Bombers apart, and experience the white heat of fear when you know that certain death is only a few seconds away.
The Fire Bomber does not take the high, smooth road of airliners. Fire Bombing pilots fly in the lower levels of the atmosphere, the boundary layer of air that rages with turbulence, horizontal tornadoes called rotor winds, downdrafts and sudden tail winds that can instantly stall an airplane and send the pilot to his death.
Fire Bomber Into Hell is Linc’s story beginning with the bi-winged Stearman and the chaos of early bombing in 1960 and ending in 1997 after Linc had flown six different types of bombers both in the United States and Canada.

Television news casts have given the public vivid pictures of walls of fire three stories high approaching suburbs of Los Angeles. Intense radiant heat and showers of embers precede the firestorm. As the flames are about to engulf the first structures, an airplane suddenly enters this maelstrom to drop a uniquely-effective fire retardant between a row of homes and the oncoming calamity. What kind of pilots does it take to fly into this Hell of fire, turbulence and smoke to place this retardant precisely on target?

Linc has captured not only the details but the emotions of being a Fire Bomber pilot. His 37-year career spans the majority of the aerial firefighting period, so he knows it as well as anyone possibly could. Linc masterfully weaves a wide range of technical, business and personal knowledge into a delightful, yet educational, primer on the history of firebombing. Along the way, the reader gets a first-hand look at the supreme highs of doing a job well, savings homes and lives from a raging wildfire, while tempered by the awful lows of losing good friends.

Linc’s contributions to the aerial firefighting community go far beyond his flight time over a fire. He was a consultant to DeHavilland Aircraft in Toronto Canada in appraising and testing the suitability of the S-2F Tracker as a Fire Bomber. He also wrote Air Attack on Forest Fires which became the definitive manual on aerial fire-fighting techniques by aircraft the world over. Fire Bomber Into Hell also reveals the “secret” of how newly discovered fires are contained and stopped in a matter of minutes.

Fire Bomber Into Hell not only relates Linc’s story, but is the drama of every pilot who sits in the same dangerous seat. Enter these pages for the full inside story of Fire Bombing and hang on for a great adventure.

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