Angel Flight West

In the early years of the 21st century, my wife Edna was eventually obliged to seek an experimental treatment for cancer at a clinic in Bakersfield. That's a long haul from Fairfield, California. The appointments were weekly, and the first couple times we drove down and back on Interstate 5 (the quickest route, although definitely the least interesting). It took several hours each way, which also necessitated staying overnight at a motel. Between the treatments and the drive, these were very tiring and stressful trips for her and for me.

Then, Edna heard about Angel Flight West (http://www.angelflightwest.org), an organization that matches up pilots willing to donate their time, gas, and aircraft with patients who need to travel long distances for medical treatments. Edna took the lead in contacting them and setting up dates and times with local pilots for travel. Soon we were flying to Bakersfield in the morning and flying back in the late afternoon or early evening. Usually we flew out of the Nut Tree airport in Vacaville (once in a while from others in the area) and landed at the Mercury Air Center in Bakersfield (Thank You! folks) How good it was, at the end of a long day, to see the lights of Vacaville and the Nut Tree airport again. It was so much easier on Edna and we could return to our own bed the same day. We flew to Bakersfield many times between July of '03 and February of '04, and each and every pilot treated us in a very caring way. We were very thankful and I think we made our gratitude obvious at the time.

Just a few days ago, I was going through a box of old photos and documents and discovered this photo. It was taken when her sister Millie (left) accompanied her (it was usually me), and shows them just before to take off (with pilot Rick Markwell). About the same time, fortuitously, I came across her flight appointment notes. It inspired me to again express my gratitude to the organization and each pilot that so generously donated his or her time and money to carrying us to appointments.

Below are the names of every pilot Edna listed in her notes. I can't be sure if everyone who flew for us is listed here or if names are correctly spelled. For any errors or omissions, I apologize. To all the folks that flew for us: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Kelsey Hood
Jerry McClelland
Matthias Frank
Barry Scott
Fred Weibel
Don Radcliff
Joe Fitzpatrick
Grant Smith
Mitchell Dion
John Capuano
William Spangler
Robert Mills
Greg ?
Stewart Rosenberg
Brad Ruben
Elwin Smith
Grover Ash
Bob Romero
Paul Kutler
Paul Hart
Darryl Schumart
Gigi Debery
Mike Cottle
Grant Smith
Stan Slaton
Kevin Mnich
Bill Shear
Tom McGrath
Fred Channon
Earl King
Tracy Hawn
Bill Canaran
Doug Kaye
Doug Campbell
Rick Markwell (thanks for the photo)

PLEASE NOTE: Angel Flight West does good work for people who need to travel long distances for medical treatments. If you can, please donate to them at: https://afids.angelflightwest.org/donation/donationEntry. Thank you!