This is a long one, bear with me...
When your dog does something inappropriate do you think it is your duty to inform the neighbor that an infraction has occurred?
Cooper likes to mark his territory and so when we walk by a mailbox it is in his nature to mark the mailbox pole. So, when people put pumpkins out in front of their mailbox he doesn’t realize that it isn’t a pole and he subsequently does something he shouldn’t do. Is it a big deal? Wait a minute. What if they make a pie from that pumpkin. Ok, what if they offer us some of that pie? So, just in case, maybe we keep our lights off for a couple of weeks.
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This week there was a story about fallen fire fighters and at first I was upset that my brother in law wasn’t included on the list, but then I reread the story and there was a list of additional names added to the list and his name was on the list. So, I would like to reminisce about my favorite brother in law Roger Stark who tragically died in 1992 . Caution here is a sad tragic story.
In 1992 Roger was the chief pilot for ServAir the contractor working for CDF (California Division of Forestry). He had been flying for CDF since 1976, before that he flew Grumman S-2 s in the Navy.As the chief pilot Roger was no longer actually flying, but on this fateful day he was filling in for another pilot who couldn’t work that day.
On June 19th, a homeowner was mowing his lawn up in Rail Road Flat about an hour above Jackson. His lawn mower hit a rock and started a simple grass fire. However, when he went to use the garden hose the fire had burnt the power to his well, so he had no choice but to call the Fire Dept. They sent a fire truck out and of course by now the fire had grown, but soon after the fire truck had run out of water. So they called out another truck, but by this time the fire had reached the vegetation beyond the property. Now they called in the tanker. When Roger got there the fire was spreading rapidly.
Back then the tanker pilots flew just a few feet over the trees for maximum effect. They no longer do that. He made is first drop but somehow when Roger lifted off his wing tilted down and caught the top of a tree and he immediately crashed.
The previous day Roger had gone down to the State Capital to lobby for more money to maintain the planes. His complaint, at the time, was they didn’t have enough money to maintain the tankers, and it was getting too dangerous to fight fires with these old planes. The meeting did not go well and he told my sister Joann, his wife, when he left the meeting he was warned that if he continues this he may not fly again.
No one had an explanation for the crash. The wing dropped more than was normal for any situation. What was brought up by several people I talked to was the prop governor (the controls for the pitch of the propeller) probably went out so that the plane would tilt. Someone on the ground heard one of the engines accelerate continuing the idea there was a problem with the prop governor. In the end they found nothing wrong with the plane. Understand that the plane was completely destroyed, so there was very little to investigate.
This all happened on Friday of Father's Day weekend, and Roger and my sister Joann had 5 kids. The 3 youngest were away for the weekend and arrived home on Father’s Day to find out their father would never come home.
A week after the funeral, his 2 oldest daughters and I went up to Rail Road Flat to get closure. We met the man who accidentally started the fire and were later given a tour of the crash site by someone from CDF. The site had been cleared of most of the debris. However, while we were there, an essential instrument of the cockpit had been found as well as a few other items. The kids unfortunately also found some fresh bone fragments. I later took them to his grave site with his son and buried them.
I do not know why I am writing this after all these years, I just started thinking about the whole thing this week and I guess it just seems like a story that needs to be told. We all felt something happened that was not his fault that caused this accident and we wanted to prove it. In the end we wanted to know what really happened, but unfortunately, we will never know. Hopefully there is a heaven and if (big if) I get up there, it will be the first thing I ask.
Thank you for your time,
