Oregon aircrews help find Boy Scout missing in coastal mountain range

Lt. Col. Thomas Traver Public Affairs Officer Oregon Wing

OREGON - More than 90 Oregon Wing members and six aircraft had gathered at the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Astoria for their annual evaluated exercise.

For the second year in a row, the Oregon Wing and Coast Guard joined forces to jointly train on search and rescue and emergency operations. But this year was different - it became the real thing.

The exercise barely got started when a call came in from the Oregon Emergency Management Office requesting the assistance of the Oregon Wing and the Coast Guard to assist the Tillamook County Sheriff's Department in their search for a 12-year-old boy missing overnight on a hike.

The boy, a Boy Scout from Camp Cooper on the Oregon coast, had gone hiking with a friend when they decided to take separate routes back to camp. While one scout made it back, the other made a wrong turn and became lost.

The camp staff and ground searchers immediately began an intensive search of the area, but were unsuccessful, and the young scout spent the first night on a heavily forested coastal mountain range 15 miles southeast of Tillamook, Ore.

The following morning, the wing and Coast Guard were alerted to begin the search again. The wing immediately dispatched two aircraft to participate and the Coast Guard sent one of its HH60J search helicopters.

While one wing aircraft was dispatched to Eugene, Ore., to transport a search-dog team to the area, the other aircraft worked with the Coast Guard in the actual search area.

Due to bad weather and low clouds, the search was called off early that afternoon with no results. The lightly dressed scout spent yet another night on the mountain.

Early on the third day, another concerted effort was launched to locate the missing boy. The search teams, including several search-and-rescue dogs, scoured the ground while wing Coast Guard aircraft renewed their air search.

By noon that day, success was at hand when dog teams located the scout in dense brush about 1 1/2 miles from the camp grounds. The team fired a flare and the wing aircraft circled the area as an aerial marker to guide in additional ground resources.

Despite his ordeal, the Scout was found in good condition with just minor scrapes and bruises.