When 13 year-old Cody Clawson attended a boy scout camp in Yellowstone National Park he accidentally strayed from the path while hauling supplies from their vehicle and wandered deep into the Wyoming wilderness.
After a four-hour search with dogs failed to find Clawson, air rescue teams from two states were called in. It was cold and raining and the scout had to hunker down for the night alone in the forest dressed only in a Tee shirt, shorts and sandals.
He couldn’t have dreamed the happy adventure that was about to greet him the next morning.
Not only was Cody rescued in a helicopter and airlifted back to civilization — pretty cool for most teenagers — but the pilot who swooped down and landed the chopper turned out to be real-life Star Wars hero, Harrison Ford.
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As a part-time resident of nearby Jackson, Wyoming, Ford helps out the local authorities flying his trusty Bell 407 helicopter into the backcountry where airplanes cannot land. The July 9, 2001 rescue was his second in less than a year. Last August, the action star guided his chopper up Wyoming’s Table Mountain to save hiker Sarah George.
“Boy, you sure must have earned a merit badge for this one,” Ford reportedly told the boy. The lad, who lives in Huntsville, Utah, replied, “I already earned this badge last summer.”