Just like last month, I'm donating a gig to the activity center this coming Friday, June 14th at 7:00 pm. Also, like last month, I'm splitting the stage time with the Hector Ortiz band (7-piece group) and will be jamming with them as well. It's a worthy cause and a good dining/dancing atmosphere. Hope to see you there at 1300 East 19th Avenue in Anchorage. That's Hector with the hat.

THE MEDIVAC HELICOPTER PILOT

This story struck me, and I didn't know what else to do with it, so I'm putting it here.

Lorena Knapp is a young, blond, medevac  helicopter pilot in Alaska. It’s a risky business anywhere, but especially in Alaska with its rugged terrain and nasty weather.  I heard her tell a story back in March (2013) and even though I probably won’t get it exactly right, it’s worth a shot.  When she was a little girl she would accompany her father on his daily flights to/from work (about a 30-minute flight in his small plane).  She got sucked into piloting because he would give her the controls and let her get used to operating the plane.  After graduating and flight school, she became a medevac  helicopter pilot where she would fly around the rural parts of the state and transport sick and injured persons to Anchorage medical facilities. However, when she was in the lower 48 getting some medical training she got word that her father was seriously ill, and was being  transported to a hospital in a medevac chopper. He was not expected to survive. She headed home but never made it in time.  Later, she was speaking with a veteran medevac pilot who flew choppers just like the one that had transported her father and asked him how he was able to emotionally deal with that time after time. He told her his secret was “I never make eye contact with the patient that I’m transporting. “ Lorena said that from that moment on, when transporting a patient, she always makes it a point to pause for a moment and look the patient directly in the eyes, especially if they were dying.