Don Bowers |
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Firebird Pilot |
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Back of the Pack
"Don's book is absolutely excellent." Francis "Frank" Allen, Firebird Navigator: 1978-82 |
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Don Bowers lived
at Montana Creek, Alaska, in a cabin he built himself. Born in 1948 in Fort
Smith, Arkansas, Don was an Air Force Academy graduate with masters degrees
from the Air Force Institute of Technology and Alaska Pacific University. For most of his
Air Force career he was a C-130 Hercules transport pilot, flying Hurricane
Hunters in the Caribbean and Spectre gunships in SoutheastAsia as well as
"trash haulers" all over Alaska. Don arrived on
the Last Frontier in 1975 and became involved with the Iditarod as a member
of the volunteer Iditarod Air Force. Upon retirement from the
"real" Air Force, Don set about to run the Iditarod with his own
team, even though he had virtually no experience as a musher. He was a
certified elementary teacher as well as a commercial pilot in Talkeetna
during the summer. Don was the author of Alaska Airmen's Logbook for Alaska,
Northwest Canada, and Russia, published by the Alaska Airmen's Association. Former Firebird Don Bowers was lost in an aircraft accident on Monday,
June 19th, 2000. “Tears flowed freely
and the sound of subdued sobbing filled the National Park Service ranger
station here Tuesday as the news came that a single-engine airplane missing
since Monday with three rangers and a pilot aboard had been found broken and
burned near the Yentna Glacier. There
were no survivors.” …Molly Brown, Anchorage Daily News |
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