Technical Sergeant Adam Brister, a former member of the Alaska Air National Guard, the husband of State Rep. Lauren Ventrella, R-Greenwell Springs, will receive the Distinguished Flying Cross on Monday.
Brister will be presented with the medal during a ceremony in the Louisiana House Chamber Monday afternoon.
The members of TSgt Brister’s former Alaska National Guard unit having traveled to Baton Rouge to stand alongside him for the occasion.
The Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded to members of the United States Armed Forces for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight. Both heroism and achievement must be entirely distinctive, involving operations that are not routine. The decoration was first awarded to Captain Charles A. Lindbergh following his historic 3,600-mile solo transatlantic flight in 1927.
TSgt Brister earned the honor through an extraordinary act of valor on June 23, 2018, in the Neacola Mountain Range of Alaska. His crew was tasked with rescuing a severely injured climber suspended on a rope after a 100-foot fall on a 5,500-foot cliff.
Weather conditions prevented a hoist attempt, so TSgt Brister was inserted onto the glacier below the survivor and climbed an adjacent snow couloir toward the stricken climber. When a brief break in the cloud deck allowed, the helicopter crew extracted TSgt Brister and initiated a night high-angle hoist. Approaching the patient with limited visibility, at the edge of the aircraft’s power limit and with rotor blades just three feet from the cliff face, TSgt Brister was hoisted 90 feet to a five-inch platform. In a herculean effort, he lifted the weighted climber’s rope and connected the unconscious patient into his own rescue harness. When severe turbulence entangled the rope during the hoist, TSgt Brister held the patient secure while cutting free the fouled line — saving both the survivor and the helicopter. He then provided life-saving advanced medical care throughout the flight.
The medal will be presented by Gov. Jeff Landry. The ceremony will also be attended by Ventrella, as well as senior military and state officials including Secretary of Veterans Affairs Charlton Meginley, Major General Greer, and Colonel Romspert.
“On behalf of the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs, I want to express our deepest gratitude to Governor Landry for taking the time to personally honor TSgt Brister with this well-deserved recognition. We are also incredibly grateful to the members of the Alaska National Guard who traveled so far to be here today — your presence speaks volumes about the character of those who serve," Meginley said. "I also want to recognize Representative Ventrella, whose connection to TSgt Brister reminds us that the ties of service and family run deep in this state. TSgt Brister’s courage under the most extreme conditions is a testament to everything we hold dear about our veterans, and it is our honor to celebrate him today.”
