An Army veteran from Minnesota has fought for freedom, but this week he saved freedom — an eagle that is.
On Rush Lake there’s no mistaking the dock belonging to Jason Galvin.
“A crisp flag in the breeze, it just rings freedom,” Galvin said.
But this Fourth of July weekend, Galvin has taken his patriotism to new heights.
Galvin saw an eagle’s nest Friday as he was making a run for bait.
As he was looking at the nest, he saw a young bald eagle hanging upside down from a rope.
“Right then I thought, man that just doesn’t look good,” Galvin said.
It turns out others had been watching the eagle with concern too, for more than two days.
“That’s when we decided we really need to make some calls,” Galvin said.
His wife called everyone she could think of, from the fire department to the DNR.
“It was kind of one of those things, where it was like, what do we do what can we do?” conservation officer Phil Mohs said.
The eagle was just too high.
“He had jokingly said, we could try to shoot it down,” Galvin’s wife Jackie said. “I said, ‘Yup, that’s what you’re going to do’.”
Galvin has been on two tours in Afghanistan.
“He had told me he was a veteran in the service and he wouldn’t do it if he couldn’t do it safely,” Mohs said.
Mohs gave the go ahead, and Galvin started firing.
He fired 150 times, and cleared three branches. Then down into the soft underbrush, came the eagle, as Galvin shot through the rope.
“There was a lot of tears,” Galvin said. “It was breathtaking, it was a beautiful moment.”
Officer Mohs started the trip to the Raptor Center.
“Fourth of July, you know, that’s our bird,” Galvin said.”I can’t let it sit there.”
Galvin and his wife started calling the eagle “Freedom”, and hope he will eventually be released back to their lake.
Veterinarians are assessing his prognosis and say he’s eating and drinking.