Special thanks for everyday heroes

The inquiry was one of sorrow, appreciation and reverence. It was a simple email from thousands of miles away asking if memorial funds had been established for Alaska State Trooper Tage Toll and Department of Public Safety pilot Mel Nading.

Toll and Nading were on board Helo-1, the state’s main rescue helicopter, when it crashed late Saturday shortly after retrieving an injured and stranded snowmachiner near Larson Lake, east of Talkeetna. Toll and Nading were killed in the crash, as was the man they had rescued, Carl Ober.

What struck us as poignant was this simple email request came from Ober’s family in the Lower 48.

“Our family would like to know more information about the troopers who died rescuing Carl this past weekend,” Donna Cary Ober wrote in the email. She was Carl Ober’s sister-in-law. “We would like to know how we can make a donation for the troopers’ families.”

In a subsequent telephone interview, she explained that although the family is saddened by the loss of one of their own, they are also keenly aware of the ultimate sacrifice Toll and Nading made on behalf of a man they likely had never met.

“They’re definitely heroes,” she said. “The fact that they risked their lives to go out and rescue him, it’s hard to explain the emotion.”

Tragedies like Saturday’s fatal rescue attempt bring home the risks our emergency responders take every time they deploy for a search-and-rescue effort, pull over a speeding driver or knock on a stranger’s door to do a welfare check. Fact is, these men and women willingly take this risk every day.

That’s why we were moved to see more than just the local law enforcement community turn out to watch the procession Wednesday as Trooper Toll’s body was brought back to the Valley from Anchorage. A 10-year AST veteran, Toll was serving out of the Talkeetna post at the time of his death.

We’re grateful for these responders, who routinely face danger in the service of others. We’re also humbled that the magnitude of this sacrifice isn’t lost on the families and those left behind when tragedy strikes.

It’s easy to glorify the soldier who braves enemy fire while retrieving a wounded comrade, and justly so. We also need to give this same recognition for the helicopter pilot who flies in adverse conditions to retrieve the lost and injured, or the state trooper who agrees to get on board that flight to serve as a spotter because he knows the local terrain.

As the Alaska law enforcement community prepares to bury two of their own, we thank Toll, Nading and all those others who put their lives at risk for us every day.