Dale Matson
Click On Photographs To Enlarge
Well, I headed to Millerton Lake today for another
opportunity to photograph eagles and other birds. This is an unintended story
of photographing another kind of
“bird”.
I was up by the Historic Millerton Lake Courthouse when a
giant orange and white helicopter from the Lemoore Naval Air Station began to
hover above what initially looked like a boat full of fishermen. I thought at
the time that someone was in trouble and they were there to help.
As it turned out it was the Navy Search And Rescue team
practicing water extraction with the boat group as a part of the team. It
seemed like a good opportunity to take some photographs with the lens I usually
use for birds.
As someone retired from the Fresno County Search And Rescue
Mountaineering Unit, I was quite interested in the process and of course
disappointed that this activity was for much younger men than me. We swim 6
months out of the year at Millerton Lake and I can appreciate the fact that the
water temperature was about 55 degrees.
I guessed they might be done around noon and saw the
helicopter land on the former dam parking area. Their truck and boat trailer
was up at the top of the boat ramp so I knew the group in the boat would be
coming up from that direction.
I drove down to the dock area and greeted the men and told
them that I had photographed them and would it be OK to put the photographs on
my blog. I nervously laughed when they said that now that I had photographs,
they would have to kill me. Actually the thought had already crossed my mind
thinking they might be members of a secret SEAL team practicing. I also offered
them copies of the photographs and I got contact information from Zachary.
They don’t just serve as a Search and Rescue team for Naval
operations. They are involved in rescues statewide. I remember them being at
one of our Fresno County searches near Wishon Reservoir. Zach mentioned they
had airlifted an injured firefighter out of there more recently.
Thanks men, I enjoyed watching the practice, display of
teamwork and skills and hopefully many more will now enjoy it via the photographs.
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