Ed

Alice has been sitting at her computer a long time this afternoon. She hasn't been on a computer in a few days thanks to helping a human family member recover from surgery.
She sat there reading an e-mail that floored her. Quietly, she said, "No!" She'd just learned a flying friend had died on a mountain in Nevada. Ed.
She's crying now writing this. It's just too sad for words. Ed was one of the very best pilots she has ever known. He's seen it all.
Alice met him after a messy search mission ten years ago. He helped to clean up the mess. He also taught her things don't always go smoothly.... sometimes a real disaster needs to happen to clean house. Many times they sat together at big meetings chit chatting quietly with candid opinions about various people...
He knew a lot about life. Good things and bad. In Viet Nam, he saw US Army Colonel Hackworth slug on the face another US military officer for complete incompentence which had caused many needless deaths.
He also was someone who could fly anything. It sticks in Alice's mind one phone call a few years ago from Ed talking about flying a glider for NASA for sound tests of a very fast moving test plane. The calm joy in his voice. And telling her about flying the NASA DC-8 all over the world from "Kwaj" to the Artic Circle in Sweden. And the many times he flew the DC-8's AirSAR at her request on missing aircraft missions when the NASA schedule allowed.
Ed. A true pilot of the sky and of life.