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10 CAP TIMES  APRIL, 1959

Quick Thinking

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FOR SAVING the life of a helicopter pilot who crashed at Morristown, Tenn., Major Evelyn Bryan, in flying suit, is shown receiving CAP's Distinguished Service award from Lt. Col. Glenn T. McIntyre, commander of Group IV, Tennessee wing. Alone at the crash scene, Major Bryan crawled under the whirling chopper blades and turned off the craft's ignition, preventing fire. Co-owner of the Morristown flying service, Major Bryan is Flying Safety officer for Group IV. She has been a CAP member for 10 years, was voted the outstanding group member in 1957, and is one of four women helicopter instructors in the U.S. (Photo by Guy R. Dyke, ISO, Knoxville squadron.)

Pulled Pilot From Plane

E-T Woman Awarded Life-Saving Medal

A clear-headed, quick-thinking Jefferson City woman pilot, Mrs. Evelyn S. Bryan, has been awarded a Carnegie Hero Fund bronze medal for braving whirling helicopter rotors to rescue the 'copter pilot in a crash at Morristown last year. 

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Mrs. Bryan

Mrs. Bryan, 48, co-owner of Morristown Flying Service, was voted the medal yesterday by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, meeting at Pittsburgh, for her action in an April, 1958, crash that killed a Virginia power co-op manager and injured the pilot.

Mrs. Bryan said she had just refueled the helicopter with 51 gallons of gasoline and its two-man crew had indicated they were going back to work checking power lines for the Powell Valley Electric Co-operative, Jonesville, Va.

A witness said the helicopter took off, went into a steep right turn, then dived toward the ground from 50 or 100 foot altitude. It hit on the right skid (part of its landing gear), and parts of the cockpit were scattered nearby 100 feet away.

Both men were lying in the shattered helicopter when Mrs. Bryan reached it. As smoke began to pour from the machine, she crawled under the swirling blades on her hands and knees and turned off the motor, preventing a fire and explosion.

The occupants, strapped into their seats, were Davis L. McNeil, 49, manager of the co-op, who was killed, and the pilot, John Ryan, 48, both of Jonesville. Mrs. Bryan's quick action possibly saved the injured pilot's life.

Mrs. Bryan has long been active in the Southeastern Section of the 99's Inc., the organization of licensed women pilots, and in the Civil Air Patrol, where she holds the rank of major.

Among the others cited were four Western Kentucky men who climbed into a 70-foot well in a five-hour effort to rescue a well driller trapped by a landslide. The medals went to James E. Jennings, 38, and B. Franklin Jones,  22, Paducah; William M. Baldwin, Mayfield, and James W. Brame, Kirksey.