| "You have to trust that guy," veteran Los Angeles City Fire Department pilot Jeff Moir says. "We all trusted Dale. He was that good." After 35 years of fighting fires in this city, first from the ground then as a helicopter pilot for 28 of those years, Dale Gant retired Friday.
He made one last surveillance flight over mudslide areas to check catch basins before coming home to the operations center at Van Nuys Airport.
"I shut it down, looked at my helicopter, and thought, `Boy, I've had one great ride.' I lived my dream," Gant said.
More than 8,000 hours of flight time. Three Malibu brush fires, three Porter Ranch fires, the Griffith Park and Station brush fires. The Sayre fire, Marek fire, Sepulveda Pass and Santa Clarita fires.
Just to name a few of the bigger ones the 57-year-old veteran has fought. He got his team in and he got them out safely.
"He's always been my hero, now others will understand why," says his wife of 32 years, Susan Gant, who spent more than a few sleepless nights waiting for her husband to come home from work.
Leading a crew of helicopter pilots into smoky canyons to make water drops on fires that just wouldn't die. Like the Sayre fire in Sylmar in November 2008.
"The dispatch came in at 2:30 a.m. I got my flight suit on and walked outside. The winds were howling. I saw this red glow at the north end of the Valley, and said to myself, `Oh, man, this is going to be a long night.'
"We got our brains beat out up there, slammed from one side to the other. But we got close enough to get in effective drops.
"We really stuck our necks out on that one. But that's what we get paid for."
This city has 16 firefighting helicopters, but only 12 pilots right now because the flight requirements are stringent and the training super-tough.
When you're flying into the teeth of a raging fire and the winds are howling, you better have the right stuff. Dale Gant had it.
"Our washout rate is about 50 percent," he said. "We have four vacancies. With me gone, we'll have five."
He thought about retirement long and hard, talked to his family, and knew it was time, Gant says.
His 57-year-old body was feeling every one of those flights where the winds threw him around like a rag doll and beat his brains out.
He's looking at a hip surgery and a rotator cuff surgery in the next year. And his knees and back aren't feeling real good, either.
But he'd do it all over again because he got to work with some of the most dedicated, bravest men and women firefighters protecting this city.
"Looking back, I'm proud of what I did," Gant says. "I trained a lot of pilots to follow me. We saved a lot of homes and lives.
"Now I'm going to kick back and see if I can sit still for a while. My wife doesn't think so. She says I'm not happy unless I'm going 100 mph with my hair on fire.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
Thanks for sticking your neck out for this city for the last 35 years, Dale. Like you said, you had one great ride. |
