Home

In July 1979, we were called to help conduct a Search and Rescue operation for a young teenaged boy who had disappeared in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Yosemite.  CPT Mike Gralian (at the end of the big arrow) and I did the flying, landing in a meadow to pick up the Sheriff and consult with the boy's father (walking away from the aircraft).

We began looking at the highest elevations where the boy had last been seen.  All we found was this wreckage of a small single-engine Cessna that had crashed just short of a mountain pass that spring.   

Moments later, we received a call telling us the boy had walked into a ranger station.  We flew there to pick him up.   That's SP/5 Wayne Blunk (Medic) carrying the boy's pack.

Back at the meadow, the parents were quite happy to get their son back.  This photo and the previous one made it to the front page of the Sacramento Union.