Remembering Ché

In front of the farm house is a black granite pyramid. Bolted to the top of it is a rusted ornamental metal bar, looping upward toward the sky. Attached to the end of this bar is a metal Pitts S1A bi-plane positioned as if it were going to buzz the farm house.

Our brother Ché buzzed the farm house, farm tractors and farm tours as often as he could, in that plane or whatever plane he was piloting at the time. We always loved it - who doesn’t love being buzzed by an aircraft? The rattling of the house that sent us running outside, the roar of the engine we felt on the second pass-by, waving with both arms in excitement, and the feeling of freedom evoked by a fly-by never got old.

Etched into the black granite is a photo of our older brother Ché Jeremy Barnes and the story of the evening of October 29, 2009, when he was dispatched as the pilot in command of a Coast Guard Search and Rescue C-130 from Sacramento. He and his crew of six flew CG 1705 south to search for a missing boater who was last seen off the coast of San Diego. The search area was in the military training zone W-291.

While searching, CG 1705 was struck by a Marine AH-1 Cobra attack helicopter that was flying a night-vision training mission in a pattern with three other Marine helicopters. 

The last words recorded by the black box of CG 1705 were Ché’s voice giving a calm, but direct order to his co-pilot to "Climb up, dude." To this day, that location in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, marks the resting spot of the aircrafts and their combined crews of nine.

The incident reminds me how close northern and southern California are. We share the same search and rescue resources, the same water resources and are separated by less than a work day in a vehicle or a long lunch in a jet.

It reminds our company of the importance of safety and the reality that huge accidents are never attributed to one single thing. Big accidents are the result of many small things, all of which are no issue independent of each other, until they line up perfectly to deliver a huge accident.

It is for this reason that safety, physical and food, must be approached with the understanding that the many small and subtle details of an operation’s behavior are required to avert disasters.

 

Our farm misses Ché dearly, his enthusiasm for a quality product being rewarded by the market place, his genuine appreciation for being true to the cause of our parents’ movement, his inquisitiveness into important details and above all his loving friendship and encouragement through hard and fun times.

Saying Goodbye to Ché's Pitts

Thank you to everyone who shared their well wishes and joined us in remembering Ché. We consider you, our CSA community, part of our extended family.