U.S. Airman Carries Grandmother to Safety After Solo Hiking Injury

A 79-year-old grandmother was carried over a mile to safety by a U.S. Air Force veteran after she fell and broke her leg in three places during a solo hiking trip in Washington.

Tacoma resident Ursula Bannister ventured out to High Rock Trail on Aug. 28 to leave flowers for her mother, whose ashes were spread at the site years earlier. Bannister told NBC Boston that, although getting there is quite a trek, you’re hard-pressed to find better views than those atop High Rock. Although she considers herself an experienced hiker, having made the trip multiple times in the past, Bannister caught her foot in a hole on her descent, grievously injuring herself.

“By the time I sat up, my foot was pointing the wrong way,” she recalled to The Washington Post . “I knew right away I had broken my leg. I tried to get up with my hiking pole and it collapsed on me.”

A stranger who happened upon the scene phoned 911, but it would have taken search and rescue crews as much as five hours to reach the scene. Shortly after that, two more hikers came across Bannister. One of those men was U.S. Air Force Airman First Class Troy May, who’s currently stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, according to the U.S. Air Force .

May and his companion, Layton Allen, decided to transport Bannister themselves. ​​"I was like, if I could carry her out, it'd be a lot quicker for her and get her out of a little bit of pain,” May told NBC . The two men helped each other “carry Bannister 1.6 miles down the steep trail,” a journey which took the group around three hours.

The men noted that they tried to keep the victim talking to distract from her harrowing injuries. “She had a bunch of cool stories,” May said. “We were trying to keep her talking to make the hike go faster…we really had quite the team.” Once they made it to the parking lot, they drove Bannister to a nearby hospital. Her leg is now affixed with 10 screws and a metal plate to assist the healing process.

On Sept. 9, May received an Air Force Achievement Medal for his heroic efforts. "I just happened to be at the right time to do it that day,” he told NBC . Bannister told The Post that May and Allen “were behaving like angels coming from the sky…I was just thankful that these guys were willing to do this,” she said. “We’ll be friends for a really long time.”