Environment

Part 3: Heroes, Big And Small

KVPR | By Kerry Klein

Published September 17, 2021 at 2:05 PM PDT

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Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joseph Rosamond, third from left, and six other California Army National Guardsmen stand in front of the Chinook CH-47F, left, and Black Hawk UH-60 helicopters that they used to airlift campers out of Mammoth Pool Reservoir.

Joseph Rosamond

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A Black Hawk helicopter approaches Mammoth Pool Reservoir to rescue campers trapped by the Creek Fire on Sept. 5, 2020.

Joseph Rosamond

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On Sept. 14, 2020, President Donald Trump awarded the seven crew members who evacuated campers out of Mammoth Pool and the High Sierra with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the nation's highest decoration for extraordinary heroism in aviation.

Joseph Rosamond

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Chief Rosamond, middle, alongside Chief Kipp Goding, who piloted the other helicopter during the Mammoth Pool rescues, receives his Distinguished Flying Cross from President Trump.

Chief Warrant Officer Joseph Rosamond

There are many ways to be heroic. Some of them are death-defying—like rushing into a burning forest to save hundreds of strangers—but some aren’t, and even talking someone down from a panic attack, or offering a ride in the middle of a wildfire, can pay dividends in serendipitous, even life-saving ways.

And so, even though by many measures, what happened at Mammoth Pool Reservoir over Labor Day weekend 2020 was a tragedy, the high-stakes situation also revealed some of the best of human nature. In today’s episode: the heroes, in all forms, who enabled everyone to get out alive.

Credits:

Reporter/Producer: Kerry Klein
Editor: Alice Daniel
Web support: Alex Burke
Engineering support: Don Weaver
Music: written byKevin MacLeod (songs: Acid Trumpet, Beauty Flow, Rising Tide, Unanswered Questions, Blippy Trance)
Music help: Benjamin Boone
Sound effects:FreeSound

This is the third episode of KVPR’s podcastEscape From Mammoth Pool: the true story of how 242 people and 16 dogs escaped one of the fastest-moving wildfires in California’s recorded history.