SEQUIM — Roger Ray Hershner was more than a skilled aviator, his wife said.
“He was an amazing man,” Holly Bliss of Sequim said Wednesday.
“He squeezed every drop out of life.”
Hershner, 66, was killed Sunday when the helicopter he was flying crashed into an open field in central Kansas, about 40 miles north of Wichita.
The Sequim man was traveling alone. The cause of the 2:30 p.m. crash remains under investigation.
A celebration of Hershner’s life is planned from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Pioneer Park, 387 E. Washington St. in Sequim.
Hershner’s passions spanned the horizon. He was a U.S. Forest Service contractor who recently worked as a surveyor, a test pilot, a rescue pilot and a forest firefighter.
The Army veteran and Harley-Davidson enthusiast was an eternal optimist, a musician, a “fiendish Sudoku player” and a dedicated family man, Bliss said.
‘A true aviator’
But above all, Hershner was a pilot.
“He was a true aviator,” she said.
“He could fly a helicopter intuitively.”
In an career that spanned nearly 40 years, Hershner racked up at least 25,000 hours in the air.
That adds up to a staggering 1,042 days — or 2.9 years of his life — behind the controls in a cockpit.
A small slice of Hershner’s eclectic life was chronicled in the book, 10 Second Jailbreak: The Helicopter Escape of Joel David Kaplan, by Eliot Asinof, Warren Hinckle and William Turner.
The biography chronicles Kaplan’s daring escape from Santa Marta Acatitla prison in Mexico on Aug. 18, 1971.
Hershner piloted the helicopter in the escape.
The authors of the book never consulted with Hershner, however, and the information was incomplete, Bliss said.
“They have some truth, but there’s a lot of story in there,” Bliss said.
The story was later adapted into the 1975 movie “Breakout,” starring Charles Bronson and Robert Duvall.
With Hershner’s passing, tributes from pilots and family members appeared on Internet blogs www.wildlandfire.com and www.voiceofthevogts.wordpress.com.
Some referred to the famous prison rescue. All referred to Hershner’s character.
“All the good things they’re saying about him are true,” said Bliss, who flew with her husband often.
Born in north central Ohio, Hershner took an early interest in music, which he gleaned from his mother, Bliss said.
After high school, he was accepted to the Cincinnati Music Academy, focusing on piano, and later joined the U.S. Army.
Hershner worked on helicopters during the Vietnam War, when he developed his passion for aviation. He was working for Brackett Air near Los Angeles when the prison rescue occurred.
Discovered Northwest
After establishing himself a pilot, Hershner discovered the Pacific Northwest on a motorcycle trip with a buddy.
He fell in love with the Forks area and lived there for much of the 1980s.
“He was quite a community person there,” Bliss said.
While recovering from an injury, Hershner spent some time crabbing, selling stoves and cleaning carpets.
“Then he got back in a plane,” Bliss said.
A seasonal worker, Hershner had contracts in Alaska, Hawaii, Germany, New Mexico, Canada and South America. He could fly any kind of aircraft and tested new models.
Although his tasks varied, one of his primary duties was fighting forest fires.
“He had an amazing talent to drop water on a pinpoint,” Bliss said.
But he knew his limits.
Hershner would not fly into smoke or take unnecessary risks, Bliss said.
He made friends easily and enjoyed sharing his knowledge.
Hershner was giving a talk about the prison rescue at Peninsula College in 1992 when he met Bliss. Soon after, he moved to Sequim.
After they married in 1998, the two spent four years in Hawaii running a air-taxi service. They returned to Sequim in 2004.
For the past six years, Hershner worked as a private contractor for the U.S. Forest Service for an Idaho company, the Hillcrest Aircraft Company.
He was flying a Bell 206 L-4 for that company when he crashed. He took off from Ogallala, Neb., that morning, heading to Witchita, Kan, as part of a multi-stop cross-country flight to Virginia.
He was also survived by a daughter, Holly, his wife said.
Bliss said she didn’t mind the fact that Hershner spent half his time working far afield. If Hershner were confined to one place, he would have felt like a bird stuck inside a cage, Bliss explained.
“I wanted him to go and follow his passion,” she said.
“He loved his freedom.”
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
