Friends remember veteran during search at Natchez Trace
HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn. — “If there’s a guy that can survive out here, it’s him,” said Jason Kenney, a friend of Jessie Thurston’s.
What started as a day full of hope, ended with hugs and tears.
Henderson County Emergency Management Agency Director Drew Cook says a body was found in the search area where crews were attempting to find Jessie Thurston at Natchez Trace State Park.
Rescue Crews gathered at the park at 7 a.m. Thursday to start the search for Thurston, who has been missing since June 25.
“There’s an area out in the park where we found his vehicle. We’re gonna search around there first, try to cover it pretty well. We’re gonna start out at a half mile radius,” Cook said.
Several different agencies, as well as volunteers, were there to help.
Once those volunteers signed in, they went into the woods on foot to start searching for Thurston.
“The trails and stuff have been searched, by local law enforcement and state parks, and there’s no sign of him on the trails,” Cook said.
Jason Kenney was deployed to Iraq with Thurston in 2006. He says Thurston was one of a kind.
“Jessie stood in burning diesel fuel, with .50-caliber rounds going off around him and pulled the bodies out. Medivac couldn’t get to us, helios couldn’t land where we were,” Kenney said Jessie self medi-vaced the team back to Taji with no radio communications.”
Kenney says he worked with Thurston to help him overcome the things he saw in Iraq.
“He would get moments where he was clear headed and functioning and then other times the world would fall in around them. This time the world fell in around him,” Kenney said.
After the body, which has not yet been identified, was found, WBBJ 7 Eyewitness News spoke to friends and family members at Natchez Trace State Park, though no one want to speak on camera. However, they do want to thank everyone for their thoughts, prayers and time during the search Thursday.
Cook says officials will have to wait for DNA testing to confirm the person’s identity.
