FRESNO, Calif. \u2014 A story that began with a desperate search has ended with a family reunion.<\/p>\n
Seventy-year-old veteran Rondy Packard was found alive on the Fourth of July after spending nearly six days missing in the remote wilderness near Pine Flat Lake.<\/p>\n
Packard left home on June 28 to go fishing but never returned. <\/p>\n
His family, deputies, volunteers, and air crews searched the rugged area where he was last known to be. <\/p>\n
Search crews eventually found Packard about 500 feet from his pickup truck approximately 20 miles northeast of Pine Flat Lake, just above Fence Meadow.<\/p>\n
His son, Andrew Packard, says his father\u2019s military background helped him survive the ordeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis training definitely kicked in,\u201d Andrew said.<\/p>\n
Andrew, a U.S. Army veteran, flew in from Texas after learning his father was missing. He says knowing fellow veterans were involved in the search brought comfort during a difficult time.<\/p>\n
The rescue was especially meaningful for the family because the air crew that helped bring Rondy to safety included two military veterans.<\/p>\n
After nearly a week of uncertainty, Rondy\u2019s wife, Valerie, says seeing her husband alive again was the moment she had been waiting for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I see his face and you know, he’s trying to eat and he’s trying to talk and he’s saying I love you… and he’s trying to reach his arm up to hug me. You know, it kind of calmed me down a little bit,\u201d Valerie said.<\/p>\n
Valerie says Rondy remains in the ICU but is expected to recover. She also thanked the hospital staff for their care and support.<\/p>\n
The couple is now looking ahead to another milestone, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n
The family says they are grateful for the search crews, volunteers, and everyone who helped bring Rondy home.<\/p>\n
FOX26 News reached out to the Fresno VA for comment. The agency referred the request to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs\u2019 national office.<\/p>\n
FOX26 asked what changes the agency is making to improve safety going forward for patients in similar cases.<\/p>\n
The VA responded, “Without a privacy waiver or authorized power of attorney, VA will not provide a statement or address questions that speak to a Veteran\u2019s specific case nor answer hypothetical questions based on a specific incident as it would violate protected information.”<\/p>\n
The family has since completed the necessary paperwork and FOX26 has resubmitted the request. The station is waiting for a response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. \u2014 A story that began with a desperate search has ended with a family reunion. Seventy-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-388680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}