That Sitka Dock Rat Who Disappeared in his Skiff was a Friend of Mine

The other day in the grocery store, while my daughter Haley eyed the gumball machine by the doors, a headline in the Daily Sitka Sentinel caught my eye: "Search for Missing Boater Suspended," or something like that.

When the Coast Guard or Mountain Search & Rescue say someone is missing and they've suspended the search, that's CG or Search and Rescue-speak for dead. I can think of no time when it didn't mean this. The body usually shows up a few weeks later, though sometimes never, like the kayaker I knew who went out one night and never came back, just his kayak washed up on the beach. Or the Green Beret who went up the Verstovia trail last year. A few days later, they found his body at the bottom of a scree field, neck broken.

Read the full story:

https://www.adn.com/opinions/2018/04/20/that-sitka-dock-rat-who-disappeared-in-his-skiff-was-a-friend/