Maine Game Warden's Badge

For the 15th time in the 130 year history of the Maine Game Wardens an officer has made the ultimate sacrifice. Warden Pilot Daryl Gordon failed to return home Thursday evening after a day of patrol and an extensive search was launched. His last call was an “officer needs assistance” when a fellow game warden got his snow sled stuck in thick slush on Eagle Lake.

Pilot Gordon was flying general patrol north of Moosehead Lake, which consists of providing support and information to wardens on the ground and surveying the area for deer. During the patrol he received information that Warden Andrew Smart was stuck with his snowmobile in deep slush on Eagle Lake (T8 R13 WELS in Piscataquis County) along the Allagash Waterway.
Pilot Gordon located Warden Smart and landed to provide necessary assistance. Both flew to another location where they retrieved a come-along in order to free the mired snowmobile. Upon freeing the snowmobile, Warden Smart and Pilot Gordon parted ways. Pilot Gordon was last seen by Warden Smart as he flew up the lake in the direction of his home base.
Warden Smart described the area as experiencing snow squalls as Gordon flew away.
Pilot Gordon was flying a red 1981 185 Cessna on skis, which allowed him to land on frozen surfaces. The plane was equipped with two locating devices. The first was a web-base satellite tracking device that is present on all State of Maine planes, which permits Public Safety Dispatchers to monitor their location for emergency calls. The second locating device was an Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), which transmits a radio signal in the event of a crash.
The last information provided by the satellite tracking device confirmed Pilot Gordon was in the area of Eagle Lake, where he assisted Smart. There had been no signal detected from the ELT.

After an extensive search Thursday night utilizing multiple agencies authorities located the crash site Friday morning on Clear Lake.

Pilot Gordon was reported as missing at approximately 8 p.m. Thursday by his wife, Rita, when he did not return to their Eagle Lake home from his day of patrol. His plane was located at 8:50 a.m. today on Clear Lake in T10 R11 WELS (Piscataquis County) when a ping from an aircraft emergency locator transmitter was picked up. A Maine Forest Service helicopter and a Civil Air Patrol plane located Pilot Gordon.

AP | Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Daryl Gordon stands next to a plane (not the one in which he crashed) on a frozen lake in 2007. Gordon, one of the agency's game wardens, was killed in the crash of a small plane on Clear Lake in a remote northern part of Piscataquis County Thursday night.

Investigators from the NSTB and FAA will go to the crash site and try to determine what caused this tragic accident.

“We lost a devoted pilot whose service to the state of Maine has been extraordinary,” he said. “So many people have had loved ones returned to them through the aerial search and rescue efforts of this gentleman. Without him, a lot of lives would not have been saved.”
Col . Joel Wilkinson Maine Warden Service

Pilot Gordon was a veteran of the Maine Warden Service, serving as a Maine Game Warden for 25 years and as a Warden Pilot for approximately 7 years. He has more than 12 years experience as a pilot.
He joined the Maine Warden Service in February 1986, and was first assigned to Calais. Throughout his career, he was assigned to Lincoln, Skowhegan and Bingham before being promoted to pilot in June 2004.
Pilot Gordon graduated from Hartland Academy in 1968. In 1969, he served 18 months of active duty in the United States Marine Corps, with 12 of those months in Vietnam where he was promoted to corporal and platoon commander and in charge of 12 Marines and 25 Vietnamese troops.
His Maine Warden Service accomplishments include an Exemplary Service Award in 2009. The northern division awards board, in its nomination report, said “Warden Pilot Gordon shows his dedication throughout the year, whether it is in helping with routine patrol or specific details. He is always thinking of the wardens on the ground and how he can help them. His ability to be a team player, his initiative, quick thinking and training, reflects upon the inherent quality, dedication and support of the Maine Warden Service and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

The job of a game warden is a dangerous one battling often both the furies of nature as well as the problems of man. These are the people we call on for help when we get in trouble in the wilderness or to protect our land and natural resources. Like fireman that run into burning buildings we call on game wardens to do the same type of thing in the wilderness. Warden Gordon is survived by his wife and two sons, our thoughts and prayers are with them and the Maine Warden Service at this difficult time.

MIF&W
Bangor Daily News

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