Somers resident Mike Sterry jumped into being an EMT nearly 20 years ago after a career spent in the skies. Now, as the longtime pilot nears retirement, he looks forward to spending a little more time with the Lakeside Quick Response Unit.  

Sterry has flown with American Airlines for 35 years. Though he’s called Somers his home nearly that entire time, all his flights depart from Dallas, Texas.  

He’s enjoyed his time with the airline, but there was a point when he thought he might need to find a backup option. 

“It was 2008 or 2009 and the airlines were in a rough patch — American Airlines was in a rough patch and it didn't look good at all. So I started looking around at what else I could do, I had to have something ... One of my sisters is a doctor and she said ‘You should become a physician assistant,’” Sterry said.  

He didn’t realize how much that would entail — going back to school and studying biology, chemistry and physics. It took five years of full-time classes to get his prerequisites to apply to be a physician assistant, and he soon learned that he would need hands-on experience to get into a school where he could continue his education.  

“Somehow, I got routed to Mary Granger, who's one of the founding members of the QRU in Lakeside. And she said, ‘Well, why don't you come and work for us and be an EMT,’” he said.  

Lakeside Quick Response Unit, or Lakeside QRU, is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year. Founded in 1981, it responds to 911 dispatched calls from Lakeside, Somers, South Kalispell, Lower Valley and Rollins areas, providing emergency medical services and ambulance transport.  

The QRU has two stations, three ambulances, two paramedic quick response vehicles and 30 trained emergency medical personnel. Though they do receive funds from the Flathead County Office of Emergency Services levy, they aren’t officially attached to any fire department.  

Sterry has been active in the organization ever since and took up a board position several years ago. He’s now the chair and has watched the organization go from an all-volunteer-based operation to having paid positions.  

“We got lucky and found Jordan Owen, our executive director, in 2018 ... He’s been through this process before in California. He's got 35 years plus experience as a paramedic, nursing medical services, and so he's been a big help with his knowledge base — taking us through this, up to this point where there's just two or three of us that are still volunteers,” Sterry said.  

When he started working with the QRU, it seemed like something Sterry would do for a year or two. But it became a place he didn’t want to leave.  

“You're working with people that are interested in helping other people, and you start seeing and feeling the benefits of that, so it's hard to pull away. The professionalism that I see in the paramedics, the EMTs and our managers who run the place — you just want to stay involved in it,” Sterry said.  

During the height of his volunteering, he was answering around 100 calls a year, but decided to back off a little after becoming a captain with the airline. Last year, he answered around 35 calls but plans to get more involved again after his retirement in November.  

Sterry will be 65 this fall — the age pilots are required to retire. His career as a pilot goes all the way back to high school, when he was a troublesome teen growing up in the San Fernando Valley.  

Growing up, he was surrounded by wildlife, taking a particular interest in the birds of the area.  

“We had migratory routes, so all kinds of birds coming through there. Later, I started falconry training, but with hawks. I was interested in flying and used to watch them all the time,” Sterry said.  

When he started running with a bad crowd as a teen, Sterry’s father, who owned a business in San Diego, asked him if he’d want to learn how to fly planes. Later, when he didn’t have the ambition to attend college, they told him in order to be a pilot, he needed to go to school, so he got a degree in aviation management. He became a flight instructor in 1984.  

Then, his father pushed him to get his master’s degree. He would go on to fly small planes to remote villages in Northwest Alaska. But his career flying airliners wouldn’t start until he was hired by Horizon, which was based in Portland, Oregon. After a couple of years with Horizon, he said he was picked up by American Airlines.  

Looking back on three decades in the skies, Sterry said there was a time when he couldn’t imagine being where he is now. 

“When I was in Alaska, it was extremely cold. It was so cold. There was no heat in those planes. And I used to look up and see the airliners going overhead. And I always thought that it must be warm up there (in their plane),” Sterry said. “Well, now, when we fly from Dallas to China, a lot of times we'll come right over where I used to fly down in Alaska so I've come full circle.” 

After retirement, Sterry plans to take a break from getting on a plane for a while. He is excited to spend time with his family, as he has two daughters and five young grandchildren.  

He’s planning to enjoy more of his outdoor hobbies, like bow hunting, fishing, camping and backpacking. He also wants to drive up the east side of the Alaskan range and spend time fishing. 

But he’s still planning on dedicating plenty of time to the Lakeside QRU — picking up more calls and being around for more board activities.  

To learn more about Lakeside QRU, visit lakesideqru.org/.  

Reporter Taylor Inman may be reached at 758-4440 or [email protected].