Residents of the small town of Bar Harbor, on Mount Desert Island, Maine, are not unused to LifeFlights medical ambulance helicopters occasionally using the town’s ball field as a landing zone.
However, it was still a bit of a shock when a Marine Corps attack helicopter landed on the field while another Marine Corps chopper circled overhead on Saturday afternoon, Nov. 18.
.
Normally, when a medical chopper is about to land, the police cordon off the field, shut down the surrounding streets, and warn nearby residents to keep children and pets indoors. In this case, no warning was given.
Parents had their children playing in Park Street playground, across the street from the baseball diamond. Cars were driving down the adjoining roads.
Kate Hall Jordan had brought her son, Finn, to the playground. Finn looked at the descending helicopter and said, “That’s not LifeFlight. That’s an attack helicopter, like an Apache.”
Forgotten Phone Prompts Impromptu Landing
As it turns out, six Marines had stopped for lunch that Saturday at a local restaurant called The Thirsty Whale. They had driven up from Hancock County-Bar Harbor Airport in Trenton, on the mainland, about 10 miles away.One of the marines had left his cellphone behind.
Shortly after they'd left the restaurant, server Jess Witherell got a call from the airport.
“Well, are you walking or driving?” she asked.
“We’re landing a helicopter at the ball field,” was the reply. The caller asked if someone could meet the helicopter at the field.
“I got chosen to be the person to go,” dishwasher Bryce Lambert told the Mount Desert Islander. “I hopped in the car.”
Lambert met the chopper at the field. A marine jumped out, ran to meet Lambert, and took the phone. He gave Lambert his name tag as a souvenir, a way of saying “Thank you.”
“He pulled the [velcro] patch off of his jacket and handed it to me,” Lambert said.
The helicopter immediately leaped skyward, and with the other chopper, disappeared into the distance.
Friends Read Free