Tacoma resident Ursula Bannister, 79, found herself on the back of a special hero after she broke her ankle while hiking to the spot where she had scattered her mother’s ashes years ago.
On the fateful morning of Aug. 28, Bannister had chosen to make her yearly pilgrimage to High Rock Lookout near Ashford, Washington, where her mother’s ashes were laid.
As she descended the trail after having lunch on the platform, Bannister accidentally stepped into a hole. Feeling pain as her leg gave out, she cried for help. She knew something had gone terribly wrong with her ankle, and that she wouldn’t be able to make it down the mountain. Her only hope was that someone would hear her pleas for help.
To Bannister’s relief, some hikers arrived and began making calls to emergency responders. The hikers then found two young men nearby and asked them to help. One of those men was Airman 1st Class Troy May, 62nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron heavy aircraft integrated avionics specialist for the U.S. Airforce, the report stated.
“My first thought was if I could carry her down, I should carry her down and get her there as quickly as I can,” said May.
Acting on that thought, May lifted Bannister onto his back and began carrying her down the 1.6 miles of steep trail.
It wasn’t easy. May was wearing cowboy boots that were not intended for such an intense job, and he had to continually pause on the way down to ensure that Bannister would not have too turbulent a descent. And the force of gravity made it hard for May to keep the injured woman on his back.
The airman carried Bannister most of the way down, but he also enlisted the help of his friend Layton Allen in carrying her some of the way, the report said.
“She was definitely in a lot of pain. I told her just a few more steps, and we’d get her there,” May said.
At the foot of the mountain, the group put the elderly woman into her car before elevating her foot and taking the wheel. Thirty minutes down the road, they met the search and rescue team who applied ice to Bannister’s foot. They then continued to a nearby hospital where she waited for her family to join her.
Just days later, May and Allen received a call from Bannister expressing her thanks for what they had done. She told them both how much she appreciated them and shared that she was recovering after surgery.
“I truly felt that these two guys were meant to be there to save me, and that sort of swam in my subconscious at the time,” Bannister told the U.S. Army. “I considered them my angels.”
On Sept. 9, May received an achievement medal from the Air Force. Lt. Col. Joshua Clifford, 62nd AMXS commander, commended May saying the young officer has exemplified through his actions the Air Force’s core value of “service above self.”
While speaking to NBC Boston, May said there are many people out there who could have done what he did. “I just happened to be at the right time to do it that day,” he said.
