Elko Daily Free Press
ELKO, Nev. — A crowd gathered at Elko Regional Airport for the National EMS Memorial Service and Weekend of Honor tribute in recognition of the 36 emergency medical responders who died in the line of duty across the nation.
Elko hosts for the procession that stopped in the community on its way to Arlington, Virginia, included Elko County Ambulance, Elko Regional Airport, Elko Fire Department, REACH and Intermountain Health Classic Air Medical.
“There were approximately 70 people in attendance, including first responders from all over northern Nevada,” Elko Regional Airport Manager Jim Foster said in an email.
The Elko event on Sunday at the airport featured Elko County Commissioner Travis Gerber; Tom Liebman of the National EMS Memorial Service; Jim Foster, manager of the Elko airport; Chris McHan of Elko Ambulance Service; Paul Ward of Classic Air Medical; and Pastor Bill Killion.
According to an announcement about the event, the cross-country procession marks the countdown to the National EMS Memorial Service and Weekend of Honor and includes a temporary memorial called the Tree of Life that travels in a specially designed GMR ambulance.
The Elko airport has its own sculpture of the star of life, the universal emblem of EMS created by Warren Archer, a flight nurse. The bronze sculpture was dedicated at the airport in 2020 in memory of those killed in two medical flight accidents in this area.
On Aug. 21, 2004, an Access Air helicopter crashed southwest of Battle Mountain, killing pilot Roger Morrison of Spring Creek, flight nurse Lisa Landers of Spring Creek and flight paramedic Todd Hellman. Also killed were Alicia Preston-Crum and her 11-day-old daughter Deanna. They had been picked up in Battle Mountain for transport to Reno.
On Nov. 18, 2016, a Cheyenne Twin Engine Piper II transporting a patient for American Medflight crashed in the Barrick Gold Corp. parking lot in Elko, killing all four aboard the plane.
Pilot Yuji Irie; paramedic Jake Shepherd of Utah; and flight nurse Tiffany Urresti of Elko died as they were transporting Bald Mountain miner Edward Clohesey of Spring Creek to Salt Lake City for open-heart surgery, according to Elko Daily Free Press archives.
The National EMS Memorial Service organization’s website is www.national-ems-memorial.org.
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