Todays air mission turned into a small crisis but 10 lucky dogs have a new lease on life thanks to the magic of air power. It started out uneventful. Our team flew to Beckley, WV early this morning for the first leg of the mission. Our good friend and fellow rescue pilot Jack Merritt was supposed to leave Philadelphia to meet us in Pittsburgh but forgot that his airport was closed. (Please feel free to take some friendly jabs at him). We got the phone call from Jack at 10:30 am while we were loading up all nine puppies and a momma at the Beckley Airport. Without Jack’s flight the dogs would have had no where to go. With little options, and time running low, we put a last minute text out to all of the No Dog Left Behind Air Pilots.
Within five minutes of hitting the send button No Dog Left Behind Pilots Noah Tuminella and Patrick Wysor had already jumped into action, hopped in Noah’s plane, and started to fly down to Allegheny County to meet No Dog Left Behind Pilots Brad Childs and Brad Mountain from the Upper St Clair Volunteer Fire Department. Brad and Brad were already airborne and enroute to Pittsburgh with these 10 lucky animals while all the details were being worked out. Both teams converged on KAGC and the dogs were transferred to Noah and Pat and flown out to Philadelphia to Greenmore Farm Animal Rescue. It is a real honor to rescue with a team that will not take failure as an option. Two planes, four pilots, 10 dogs and two states. What a day. Great work everyone. You can almost hear the Top Gun sound in the background.