We were renting a house on Mirror Lake - out in Peter's Creek (about a 45 min. drive north of Anchorage). Our family had just settled in, when our next door neighbor, John Pex and his wife, Patty stopped in to welcome us to the "lake" community.

Now, Patty looked like any other housewife in America, but John was - as I had pictured in my verdant imagination, what an Alaskan man should look like - a cross between Grizzly Adams and a Lynryd Skynrd band member! A burly, intimidating looking fellow with a long red beard. I must admit, I was a bit fearful of him at first, but he proved to have the temperament of a big ol' teddy bear. Both our neighbors were friendly and welcoming, but Patty was more lively, John was on the laid bk side and more quiet in nature.

Since we were new to Alaska, John and Patty were helpful in answering questions we had regarding our new home. One of the topics that most fascinated our children(and us adults as well) were stories/facts about bears and bear attacks. My husband and I wanted to be thoroughly informed before we ventured out into the back country and the kids just wanted all the hair raising, gooseflesh-making horror stories !

At the time, John was the head surveyor with the State of Alaska, and it was his job to survey 150 acre native tracks of land out in the bush. He regaled us with many stories of his adventures including bear encounters. One day, as we sat on the Pexs' deck overlooking the lake/drinking one of John's homemade brews, Patty mentioned that John had won a medal/citation from the Department of the Interior for bravery. We asked her to tell the story and this is what we learned about our sweet and laid bk friend:

John was out surverying for the summer. I believe it was over in the Lake Clark Nat'l Pk area. Anyway, he was accompanied by two other surveyors/survey assistants - one male and one female. Evidently, the two had hiked up the trail ahead of John. (Most bear attacks occurr when a bear is surprised - either when it is feeding on a moose kill, or traveling along with young cubs). In this case, the two unfortunate surveyors surprised a brown bear- maybe they weren't making enough noise, or this could have just been a more aggressive bear - the bear proceeded to grab the man by the head. The woman, seeing this play out before her started screaming in terror and shock. The bear dropped the guy and honed in on the woman. He attacked. John, hearing their screams came running...he pulled up his rifle - took aim and the bear charged at him. I was so caught up in Patty's story, can't remember if it was three shots or four - before that bear fell. Patty said when it did, its massive body lay very close to wear John was standing! Patty made that statement and matter of factly added the info that John had fired his last round/bullet! He then in turn, carried each one of those surveyors out to a pt where they could be picked up by helicopter and airlifted to the hospital.

This trek was of some distance and made more difficult by the bush terrain. The ground is hard to traverse, due to frost heaves and vegetation. As John carried the badly injured hikers, he had to tend/apply pressure to their wounds to prevent severe bleeding! Can you imagine the physical and mental fortitude this task required? I believe they both survived - at least the woman did for sure.

After hearing this story, we looked at John in a whole new way. This unassuming man had the strength/bravery to stand his ground and save his friends/coworkers. In all the time he had been regaling us with stories of the bush and bear encounters he never mentioned his amazing act of courage! He was flown to Washington D.C., where he was cited for his bravery.