Sad News

The image above is from a few minutes ago, taken by the Whittier webcam, located in an apartment Judy and I rented there from 1976 to 1978. The view looks down the north shore of Passage Canal toward the northeast. Just to the right of the edge of the picture is where teams are now searching for any signs of survivors from the missing LifeGuard air ambulance.

Judy and I have both had our thoughts with the people involved. The LifeGuard helicopter crews take so many risks. And so have the searchers who have been combing rough terrain in some awful weather since the craft and crew were reported overdue.

I've seen those choppers land at Anchorage's Providence Hospital time and again in windy, rainy, miserably dangerous weather. And I'd wonder "Where did they come from, how bad was it to get here, did they make it in time?" But I've never asked "Why do they do that?"

So many aspects of civilian emergency response in Alaska are dangerous, but I doubt any are more perilous than these helicopter ambulance trips. U.S. Coast Guard rescue operations are even more wildly dangerous, for sure, but compared to Anchorage or Wasilla paramedics, the LifeGuard crews are a breed apart.

To figure out why people go out into amazingly scary weather to bring another person to a hospital, one needs to know some of these dedicated pros. I used to know a lot of them when I was a volunteer firefighter and EMT down in Whittier. Along with Freddie Joiner, the late Mike Livingston and Patrick Johnson, I helped start up the first search and rescue unit in Whittier, around 1978. We saved a lot of lives, brought back a number of bodies, and were lucky enough to make it back ourselves every time.

You don't get called out very often by the Coast Guard, the Troopers or the Elmendorf Emergency Coordination Center when the weather is nice. More often, it is during the worst conditions imaginable. But we'd do it. I think, for me, it was partly because I was so young and craved adventure. It was that more than a feeling of wanting to help others in need. The latter certainly played a part, though. I can still remember the feelings we'd get if we found somebody alive who had gone missing. I've saved a few of the "thank you" notes.

I'm still hoping there might be some "thank you" notes from survivors on this one. But, whatever happens, I'll try to find a way to thank the brave people who have been out along the helicopter's route this past week.