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Two USCG Air Station Traverse City Pilots Take Final Flight Before Retirement

It was a bittersweet day for two pilots stationed at U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City.

Thursday morning was Lieutenant Commander Jason Blyth and Lieutenant Commander David Ober’s final flight with the Coast Guard.

The two will retire later this month.

9&10’s Caroline Powers was there for their final landing and has more on what their time in the service has meant to them.

After a combined total 35 years with the United States Coast Guard, two pilots at Air Station Traverse City are hanging up their flight gear.

Lieutenant Commanders Jason Blyth and David Ober say they love helping others.

“Our goal is to make things extraordinary ordinary,” says LCDR Blyth. “So for us we’re trained to do it, we’re ready for the call and it’s something I think we all enjoy doing.”

That’s why they both dedicated decades of their lives to serving our country.

“I had the lucky chance to be on two really big cases. We went and medevacked two teenage girls off of Isle Royale in the middle of the night and got them to the hospital,” says LCDR Blyth. “Then I was part of a cliff rescue at Pictured Rocks where a kayaker got swamped and climb the cliff and we were able to go get him off the cliff.”

“I would have to say the Red River flooding in North Dakota,” says LCDR Ober. “We ended up hoisting 23 people, 3 dogs and a cat in a couple of day time period off of rooftops and stuff due to the plane flooding that they had there.”

Later this month, both will switch from military life to civilian life, but not before one last flight together.

“Jason and I met 12 years ago. We were stationed in Oregon together and so it was nice to finish our careers off together,” LCDR Ober says.

“We went out to Sleeping Bear Dunes, flew along the shoreline and then came back around, flew over downtown and then we headed out east,” says LCDR Blyth.

“It was emotional knowing that it was the last flight in the area for a while as a Coast Guard pilot. So who knows what the future entails,” says LCDR Ober.

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