Coming off our nation’s Independence Day, this may be the most American story we’ve ever heard of.
A bald eagle, the animal chosen on June 20th, 1782, as the symbol of the United States of America because of its long life, great strength, and majestic looks, recently found itself wrapped up by a rope, caught in a tree, and dangling upside down.
Calls to the Department of Environmental Conservation and local authorities were disappointing – due to the height at which the eagle had become ensnared, there was nothing anyone could do.
Enter Jason Galvin, an army veteran with two tours of duty in Afghanistan under his belt, who took his wife’s suggestion to use his marksman skills and shoot the rope until the bird was free.
Figuring the bird would die if nobody did anything to help, Galvin decided to go for it. It took quite a bit of time, effort and resources, but he was eventually able to free the bird.
Amazing!
Via Fox News Insider:
Last week, Jason Galvin and his neighbors noticed an eagle dangling upside down from a tree near Rush City, Minnesota, WCCO reported.
They contacted police, the fire department and the Department of Environmental Conservation, but they were told that the departments had all been aware of the bird for more than two days, but they couldn’t do anything about it because of how high it was.
Galvin, who did two tours in Afghanistan, was asked by his wife to use his marksman skills to shoot the rope and branch the bird was hanging from.
“At a certain point I was like, ‘You know what? It’s going to die. I’ve got to get that thing out,’” Galvin said. “It was weird shooting in the direction of a bald eagle. I was very nervous. I didn’t want to hit that bird.”
After an hour-and-a-half and 150 shots, the bird fell safely onto the branches below.
The eagle was taken to the local Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota, and was very appropriately named Freedom.
Watch below …
You can check out more incredible photos from Galvin’s wife’s Facebook post below …
Comment: What better story for the week of July 4th than this one? What do you think of Army veteran Jason Galvin’s effort to rescue a symbol of our nation? Share your thoughts below.
