Aaron Beesley Remembered

I took a break from my regularly scheduled Europe recap posts last Saturday after I heard of the passing of Aaron. The week was spent reflecting on the Plan of Salvation, earthly life, family, and of course, celebrating our independence.

Kyle has been involved in the past year in the Aero Bureau (a branch of UHP) in a position called a Tactical Flight Officer. A total of 4 men in the state currently hold that position and it involves almost anything that the State helicopter is involved in: mostly search and rescue missions, man hunts and marijuana eradication missions.

Aaron was one of those 4 men. He was the one that got the program where it is today and taught Kyle everything Kyle knows about TFO-ing.

This weekend Kyle and I had the honor of attending his memorial services. Friday night we met as the Aero Bureau and filed through the viewing line one by one as Luke Bowman (UHP pilot and our good friend) introduced us to his family. I will never forget the way Aaron’s mom, after shaking hands with Kyle put her hand right on her hip and told him “If you do the same thing Aaron did on the helicopter, then you’ve got some big shoes to fill, son!” To which we all laughed and discussed how Aaron’s shoes can never fully be filled. He was nothing short of a technologically brilliant man. Any computer glitch or communication system problem was literally fixed with just snap of his fingers.

It was humbling to hug his wife Christie and chat with her. What a rock she is! I have a new heroine on my list of ever growing women I desire to emulate.

As we were leaving the viewing to go eat, it was habit to look around for Aaron to pull up a map on his phone to find the quickest way to our restaurant.

The funeral was also something I will never EVER forget. To be surrounded by so much brown and brass was comforting. Comforting to know that many men in our State care about honoring a hero in the right way, and comforting to know that our great State is safer because of them.

Governor Herbert came to pay his respects at the funeral and gave a wonderful talk on the values of Utah. He said Utah has one of the highest volunteer statistics in the nation. That is something we should be proud of!

The funeral procession brought out thousands of people to show their support. People from all walks of life stood in the heat of the day to hold their hand over their heart and salute a fallen hero they didn’t even know. This was one of the most touching acts of appreciation I’ve ever witnessed.

Kyle and Captain Brian Redd in the Honors Corridor.

Some of the wives of the AeroBureau: Kristine Bowman and Karissa Duke

Some of the Boys from Section 7. We miss them dearly.

More of the funeral coverage can be found here.

I can’t even begin to skim the surface to writing of the man Aaron Beesley was. But I feel a little more comfort knowing that Kyle has a UHP brother angel of his own that will be watching over him while in the line of duty.

A dear friend, and wife of a Trooper, Mindy Matthews speaks for all law enforcement officers wives when she posted this on Facebook the morning after Aaron passed away:

“I feel relief and gratitude every night my husband comes home. My heart breaks for a wife that didnt get that relief last night.”

If you find you need something else to pray from tonight, I know of a grief stricken wife and 3 young boys who don’t understand why their dad hasn’t come home yet who could really use some extra buoying up.

I know that Aaron is not resting right now. There had to be some emergency on the other side to pull him away from this life. He has saved probably hundreds of lives in here on earth, and I certainly know that he is now saving hundreds more as we speak.

Until we meet again, Aaron, 10-42.

Aaron’s fly over and 10-42