For 19 years, Doyle R. Thorne served the Utah Highway Patrol as a trooper, field supervisor and, most recently, as a pilot, lending his experience as a veteran aviator to numerous search-and-rescue efforts.
It was in such a circumstance that Thorne lost his life Saturday, making him the 91st Utah peace officer and ninth Department of Public Safety officer killed in the line of duty.Searchers found his body Tuesday in the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed west of Duchesne on Strawberry Peak.
Thorne had responded to the Argyle Canyon area of Duchesne County to help search for a missing Arizona girl Saturday. When the toddler was located, he turned back about 7 p.m. Minutes later, he radioed the local dispatch that he was losing altitude and going down in the trees.
As a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot in Vietnam, Thorne was a natural choice to join the department's Aero Bureau in 1988. In the years since, he received numerous commendations for his work on search-and-rescue proj-ects but is probably most well-known as a man who quietly did his job well, without flash and bravado.
As a pilot, he had a steady hand and made his passengers feel comfortable in the air.
"He was as at home in an air(craft) as he was in a patrol car," said Kent Bryant, a captain for UHP's Special Services Division. Bryant flew with Thorne several times as a passenger during transports and knew the man as a "true unsung hero," one who stayed behind the scenes but often played a vital role.
"Doyle was always one of those who . . . if you've got to drive around a cliff, he wasn't one to hang it out over the edge . . . he wasn't going to take chances," Bryant said.
A 1966 graduate of Utah State University, Thorne earned a master's degree in 1990. He joined the highway patrol in 1975 and was sta-tioned in Kanab, later transferring to his hometown of Brigham City to work as a field trooper. He was promoted to sergeant and reassigned to the Vernal area in 1987 and joined the Aero Bureau one year later.
As one of three bureau pilots, he was called upon to fly both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. As a pilot and law officer, he was well-respected.
"I've never seen Doyle turn a mission down - if it was feasibly possible, he went," Bryant said. Although a child was involved Saturday, that probably didn't make much difference to Thorne, Bryant said.
"Doyle would have done it if it was anyone," he said. "It didn't matter who you were, if you needed help, Doyle was there."
The father of two daughters and two sons, Thorne lived in South Jordan with his wife, Luci, and family. The day before he died, one of his daughters married and left on her honeymoon.
That he still responded to the Saturday search for the missing girl is typical, Bryant said.
"Weddings have a way of taking a lot out of a parent," he said. "He could have said, `Hey, by the time I get out there . . .' but he went - that reflects the kind of selfless way he was."
On Wednesday, the department and Thorne's family thanked the hundreds of searchers who volunteered to look for the officer.
"He had a good reputation in the law enforcement community. People feel the same way in the area where he lived. We had countless people call . . . just because of his selfless act of going out and looking for the little girl" and becoming lost himself, Bryant said.
An officer with an interest in simply helping people, "he just went out and did (his job) and did it very quietly."