As a youngster, Jon Bader felt that his calling in life was to be a Naval rescue swimmer, said his mom, Mary Jo.

The Bothell Cedar Park Christian 2007 graduate is helping with the relief efforts related to the recent 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan. Jon is stationed at the Atsugi Naval Air Station, which is south of Tokyo.

The massive quake hit the Pacific Ocean nearby northeastern Japan at around 2:46 p.m. March 11 (Japan standard time), triggering a tsunami.

“They felt the earthquake, had a few minor damages on the base, but nothing serious,” said Mary Jo, who works in the Cedar Park finance office (the family lives in unincorporated King County, near Bothell).

Jon contacted Mary Jo Monday night and informed her that he worked a 20-hour day; they had four helicopters out and he was crew chief on one of them, he said.

The search-and-rescue mission was to involve an evacuation of one area. When they landed, the people were friendly, hopeful, needed supplies, but did not want to leave. There were no serious injuries, so that part of the mission extracted no evacuees. They did give those people whatever boxes of blankets, bottles of water, food and baby formula they had in the helicopters.

“It is so hard for them when the people refuse to leave, knowing the hardships they are going through,” Mary Jo said.

The flights took longer because of the no-fly zone around the nuclear reactors (which were leaking radiation and had exploded), Jon told Mary Jo, and they had to wear booties when they stepped on the soil to keep contaminated soil out of the helicopter.

On Tuesday, they were all confined to the barracks due to radiation levels in the area. Levels were low (about what people would get in an X-ray), but they didn’t want them exposed anymore than necessary. There were to head back out on Wednesday.

Mary Jo noted that Jon and his shop (crew) spent the first few days after the quake debriefing while waiting for the Japanese government to say when and where it needed help. The shop made sure its helicopters were in prime condition, learned how to use body bags and packed its gear for the mission. The shop members went into work each day, taking their seabags with them in case they didn’t go back to the barracks, but were sent out.

The shop members delivered bread and rice to those in need while awaiting the go-ahead for its search-and-rescue mission.

“Jon has always had a sensitive heart for other people; especially those hurt or the ‘underdog,’ so to speak,” Mary Jo said. “He is our youngest child and I couldn’t be more proud of him. We are a very patriotic family … always have been. I was not surprised that Jon went into the military … it seemed that was a passion of his since he was a little boy.”

Jon signed up for the Navy the summer between his junior and senior years in high school and left for training the summer he graduated, Mary Jo said. He spent 18 months in training from boot camp through rescue-swimmer school, search-and-rescue school, helicopter training and more. He graduated in March 2009 and got his wings, and then the Navy assigned him to Japan.

He is part of a helicopter anti-submarine warfare squadron called HS-14, “The Chargers.” Here is a YouTube video of Jon’s squadron loading helicopters to take bread and rice to the outlying areas that were hit.