El Toro : 2 Deputies Honored for Aid After Copter Crash

Two county sheriff’s deputies have been honored for their assistance during the crash of a military helicopter last year a few miles from the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Dave Tilstra of Anaheim and Michael Tynes of La Verne were honored recently at the fourth annual Law Enforcement Community Service Awards ceremony sponsored by the Southland Corp.

Tilstra, who pilots a Sheriff’s Department helicopter, and Tynes, an observer, were dispatched to the site near Alicia and Moulton parkways last Aug. 25. When they arrived, they found one man dead and four other military personnel walking in a daze near the crash site. The co-pilot told the officers that another Marine, the pilot, was still in the CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter.

Shortly before one of the copter’s fuel tanks exploded, setting off a one-acre grass fire, Tilstra and Tynes removed the pilot, then flew him in the department helicopter to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo. The pilot, Maj. Robert Brewton, 40, of Pensacola, Fla., has recovered from his injuries.