Carl M. Russell

Debbie, Roger, Laurie, and Family,
I want to express my sincere condolences for the loss of your father and Uncle Bud. I truly enjoyed our meals together. He was a true gentleman and so wonderful to been able say he was my friend. I will miss him but I will always remember him in my heart.

I met Dr. Russell at the reunion of the C47 survivors in 1996. My family arrived at the reunion with some trepidation, because my father's youngest brother had died in the crash. Anxiety melted as we listened to the survivors' stories and heard about the three brave men who came to their rescue. Dr. Russell was one of those brave rescuers. I remember Dr. Russell listening to my father with great care about his memories: of the brother who was lost, of news following the crash, of what...

Debbie,
I am so sorry for your loss. I have not seen you for a very long time, but I get down to the Atlanta area about once a month and would love to visit with you some time. Hope things are going well for you other than this. Your Dad was a great man; always had a smile. Take Care. God bless.

Lauren -
My thoughts are with your mom, you and your sisters, Sarah and Danny. I hope you all are comforted by many happy memories.

Dear Nancy and Family,

It’s summer now, but yesterday after hearing the news about Russ, I could once again imagine the blast of a February Alaska wind in my face. Russ, Major Russell then, knelt to examine the puncture wound on my leg and assure me that I was going to be okay. Six of us had been thrown from an Air Force C-47 as it broke up over Kesugi Ridge in the Susitna River Valley. I was twenty years old then, but never forgot the three men who came to our rescue. Russ, the Air...

Dr. Russell was indeed, a life saver and caring person. In February 1954 he flew into the mountains of Alaska with a bush pilot and rendered aid to myself and five other survivors of a plane crash.
Some 46 years later he attended a reunion of the survivors and families and continued to share his caring, friendship and artwork in the years that followed.

I was one of the six men from a plane crash in Alaska who Dr Russell was flown in to the bush to treat, I use to call him each x mass, but the last few years I have had problems and failed to do so, which i'm very sorry for. Dr Russell brought a thermos of coffee to the crash site, I was very thirsty and he gave me a drink, that was the best coffee i have ever tasted, I often told him about that. Please accept my sympathy's I will never forget him.