The pilot, Luc, has been my friend and climbing partner since 1999, his senior year in high school. We met when he asked me to mentor his high school senior exit project (the project was establishing a new rock climb). I am almost exactly 20 years older than him. Now we climb together whenever we can.
I could type paragraphs about what a fine young man he is. About how wonderful he is to climb and to hang out with. About how much my wife and daughters have always loved Luc and his wife Cassy (they were high school sweethearts).
I last saw him at he and his wife's baby shower near Christmas. He is so looking forward to being a dad. Their daughter is due in about one month.
If he doesn't come out of this, then the world is a totally, totally f#%ked place.
I don't pray. If any of you do, then please do it now. As hard as you can.
Our whole town is on edge about this. Luc and his family are well loved here. From the teachers and the students at the high school to our local news people, to anyone talking in town, everyone is hoping beyond hope that this turns out well My wife is checking Facebook a few times an hour. I'm clicking "renew" on the Aviano airbase home page every 15 minutes just hoping for good news. My older daughter has asked a me a few times now what I think. It's hard to even talk to her about it.
" we have good evidence now that Lucas was able to eject from his jet. He has really good survival gear on including a special suit and raft. He has food, water, even fishing hooks! Now we need to find him! There are hundreds of people looking for him, the Italians and US Air Force and Navy have been awesome!!!!"
The weather in the Adriatic Sea has been awful, including dense fog. There is hope.
"Luc is a self-reliant outdoorsmen who would sleep every night under the stars if he could," Cassy added. "He's a sky diver, he's a rock climber and he's a certified scuba diver. He is also a health nut and in great shape."
" we have good evidence now that Lucas was able to eject from his jet. He has really good survival gear on including a special suit and raft. He has food, water, even fishing hooks! Now we need to find him! There are hundreds of people looking for him, the Italians and US Air Force and Navy have been awesome!!!!"
The weather in the Adriatic Sea has been awful, including dense fog. There is hope.
He truly was exceptional. Luc made me realize that the generation after mine was a better set of people in many ways. More aware of the world, more understanding of others, and kinder to other human beings. Smarter and stronger too.
This photo of Luc was taken at the top of Lone Pine Peak (obviously, I'm the one with a shirt on):
He was so strong, so careful and so utterly competent. I can't even start to imagine what went wrong.
So sorry. If he ejected, it's most likely there was a mechanical malfunction. Sometimes competence isn't enough, and accidents just happen.
Flying those jets is a dangerous profession. Every year dedicated pilots who defend our nation and our interests abroad don't make it back.
It never gets any easier and saying they're heroes sounds very hollow right now, but in time, his family and friends will be able to take consolation from that.
My deepest condolences to all his friends, family, and his town. I can't imagine facing my life with my baby Aristides without Bill. I can't imagine his wife's pain and suffering. May the child be born healthy and easily. May she find her way so even though she will ALWAYS miss him, that she will find the balance and feel strength and joy for knowing him.
I've been in semi shock since this went down and I immediately thought of you Brad. Big loss for Twain Harte and the world. My thoughts are with his family and the many people I know at home struggling with this loss.
After Luc and I had been climbing together for a while he told me he wanted to do some longer routes in the High Sierra. We did a few such routes before he left for the Air Force Academy and one during a summer when he was home.
He was an incredibly strong climber and in good cardio/hiking shape too.
Our first longer climb was The Nevabe Ridge on Mount Morgan North. This route is only class three, but it's a long, long ridge with a lot of elevation gain.
We started fairly early, each carrying our own day packs. I'm strong, and by that point I'd done well over one hundred High Sierra routes. I hiked steeply uphill toward the actual ridge. Luc meanwhile hiked a little ahead. He was very strong, and 20 years younger than me.
As we sometimes did, the two of us exchanged some well meaning banter during the day. For the first hour or so Luc stayed ahead of me. He'd periodically stop to shout back: "are you OK old man?" And, "are you going to make it ?" I assured Luc that I'd make the summit, but that I'd do so at my own pace.
After the first hour of hiking Luc slowed noticeably. I kept up my normal, "all day" pace. Soon I was waiting for him. I didn't say anything, I just waited. After a few hours he was really lagging; this was his first time ever at these altitudes, and he lacked experience and obviously hadn't paced himself.
Finally, when the summit was in sight, I told Luc that I was going to continue at my pace and that I'd wait for him there. I went ahead, and when I arrived, I ate lunch. It was 15 minutes before Luc arrived.
He was amazed at the views; this was really his first time in the high mountains. I said nothing more about having to wait for him. Obviously, he'd stopped with the "old man" comments long before. We descended to the car by mid-afternoon.
Point made.
A year later we did the North Ridge of Lone Pine Peak. We roped up for some of this, but did most of it without gear. Even after we untied, we stayed fairly close to each other for the majority of the climb. It was obvious that Luc was pacing himself, now smarter and more experienced up high.
However, as Lone Pine's summit came into view, Luc quietly picked up his pace (on class two terrain by now). Did I mention how strong he was? He gradually pulled ahead of me toward the summit. He then waited for me there for 15 minutes. After I arrived he never said a word about his wait.
Counter-point made.
We spent the rest of that Lone Pine trip cragging on the east side.
It's nice that they chose a picture of him on a climb for this story.
It's amazing how you can never meet a person, but reading personal stories and learning of their loss can really get at you. I'm sure there are several reasons for this.
Rips the heart to think about a guy like this passing and leaving behind a wife and little girl that will never know her dad. So sad.
I spent most of my adult life working to make sure that these kids came home on their own two feet, so events like this break my heart. My deepest condolences to all of you, family and friends, that knew Luc.
The Air Force has announced that Luc is being promoted - posthumously - from captain to major.
I still remember the weeks after he finished flight school almost ten years ago. Like any new military pilot Luc had hoped for an assignment to fly fighters. Instead he was asked to stay behind and become an instructor at the flight school itself. Although he understood what an extreme compliment this was - a judgment even that he had the maturity, expertise and people skills to immediately become a teacher - he was still a little disappointed.
He eventually got his assignment to fighters.
When he did his tour in Afghanistan he placed an American flag in his cockpit during one mission. He gave me that flag together with a certificate that it had flown a combat mission with him in his F-16. The flag hangs on my wall.
I always joked with Luc about him giving me a ride in a two-seat trainer/fighter. His standard response was that he was "still trying" to set such a flight up.
So excellent for the USAF to give him that promotion. He has left a large Legacy though, in the form of those he trained and flew with, and in the service to our country as well as his little one. Then there are those he traveled the mountains with,, A life WELL LIVED although tragically short.
Spoke with my Dad (AF) last night about this poor Gent and his family. My Dad had lots of questions, was curious about his rank (he guessed Major).
I'm curious as to what the AF does for a fallen soldier's family in a case like this? I'm assuming the retirement benefits he's accumulated would go to the family later. Do they help in any other way financially?
Coming from a family of pilots and having had some long nights as a kid not knowing which plane and crew was involved with a crash I know it can be tough, all the more so with this outcome. Always hard to lose someone and someone who lived well. Condolences.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
I grew up on air force bases. When there is a crash fatality they do this thing where four jets come over the base in formation, then one flies straight up and out of sight. Super sad.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
This poem by John Gillespie Magee Jr, is always in a prominent place on the wall of my home where I read it every day.
So sad to lose another kindred spirit.
When there is a crash fatality they do this thing where four jets come over the base in formation, then one flies straight up and out of sight.
I've attended too many of these...honoring all those who have left us, not just the pilots, but all who have gone before us; and reminding what a blessing it is every day to still be alive and able to look across the sky and the waters and the trees and the birds calling out...
It says a lot about Luc that 1,000 people attended his funeral at Aviano air base (God, I hate to even type the words "his funeral").
I read some of Cassy's words, which also say a lot about Luc and quite a bit about Cassy herself:
"If he were here, he would challenge each and every one of you to go climb that mountain you've been waiting to climb, he would tell you to plan that trip you haven't planned, he would tell you to call that friend you've been thinking about, and he would tell you to be sure to tell your loved ones you love them every day. So I challenge you now, for him, and in his memory."
I can practically hear him saying just these words. He lived that way.
I am so sorry for your loss and of course my sincere condolences to his family. It hits close to home as my brother flew for many years of his military career, and I visited him at the Aviano base when he was flying missions during the most recent Balkan War. People would be surprised if they knew how many pilots are lost even during "peacetime" manuovers - it's a very dangerous job.
Peace, Phyl
I got to meet Serene Gruenther today. She's five weeks old. She's so beautiful and very alert. Although I'm a little out of practice for holding such little girls, it seemed to come back to me quickly.
Luc's funeral is tomorrow at our high school.
I attached a blue rubber "live like Luc" wristband to my climbing pack.
Let us know!