Bless You, Brother Irvin: The Caterpillar Club Story

This is a compendium of true stories of those men and women who have exited from burning airplanes and hot air balloons and parachuted to safety. This makes them eligible for membership in the Caterpillar Club, begun in the 1920s by Leslie Irvin, a Canadian parachute manufacturer. Starting with Dolly Shepherd, a pioneer Caterpillar who bailed out from a hot air balloon in 1906, we read accounts of those who made daring, astonishing, even bizarre escapes and lived to tell about it. Mr. Neal is himself a member of the Club, and proudly wears his caterpillar pin with the ruby eyes. His own story appears in this account along with about thirty others.