MIAMI — Retired U.S. Air Force Col. John Alvarez has spent the past three decades turning a life-threatening helicopter crash into a story of courage, perseverance and faith.
Alvarez, a South Florida native born at Jackson Memorial Hospital and a University of Miami graduate, suffered severe injuries in a helicopter crash during a joint training mission in the jungles of Ecuador nearly 30 years ago.
“I was a Navy pilot on an exchange tour with a special operations unit with the Air Force,” he said.
The crash left Alvarez fighting for his life. He was rescued from a river by local residents before doctors amputated his left leg. He later worked with specialists who continued perfecting his prosthetic.
Through each step of his recovery, Alvarez said, he remembered words from his mother, Carmen.
“She said, God puts people in places for you,” he added.
Those people helped Alvarez survive and eventually accomplish goals that once seemed out of reach.
His daughter, Lisette Alvarez, said her father’s recovery was about more than determination.
“It was very important to have that, not just the grit and determination, but the grace and the love as a part of this story,” she said.
This Saturday marks 30 years since the crash, a date John Alvarez calls his “My Alive Day.”
Lisette Alvarez, his first-born daughter, documented her father’s journey in the book “Walk, Run, Fly Again.”
John Alvarez’s first goal was to leave his wheelchair and walk again.
“My first and foremost important goal that I wanted to do was to stand up and walk, be out of my wheelchair, to dance with my daughters and my wife,” he said.
He set a goal of walking again by Thanksgiving 1996, just two months after the crash.
He accomplished it.
His next goal was to run.
Lisette Alvarez said her father accomplished that goal before her birthday.
“I feel incredible pride for that, and the fact that he actually managed to complete it three weeks before my birthday,” she said.
Then came his third goal: flying again.
John Alvarez said returning to the cockpit was not simply a personal challenge. He had a deadline to maintain his qualifications as a pilot.
“The issue is if you are grounded for 365 days consecutively, you lose your qualification as a pilot,” he said.
On Sept. 5, 1997 — less than two weeks before the one-year anniversary of the crash — John Alvarez returned to flying.
“I was the first pilot to return to full combat unrestricted waiver,’ he said. “I was the first one in, in the U.S.,” he said.
Since then, John Alvarez has continued to mentor others in the military. As an amputee aviator, he commanded special operations missions in Serbia, Kosovo and Iraq.
Now 63, he is also a father of three and grandfather. His priorities have shifted from military missions to family.
“That’s our priority in life right now is raising our grandchild,” he said.
His journey is captured in Walk, Run, Fly Again, a story centered on faith, family and perseverance.
The book closes with Isaiah 40:31:
“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint,” he said.
John and Lisette Alvarez are marking the 30th anniversary of the crash with several events.
On Thursday, the pair are scheduled to attend a book signing in Ohio at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
On Friday, John Alvarez and his family are scheduled to run the U.S. Air Force Half Marathon to commemorate the anniversary.
The race is not his first major distance event. He has participated in several distance runs and sprint triathlons.
Lisette Alvarez is also working on an accompanying audiobook, which is scheduled to be released in spring 2027.
Walk, Run, Fly Again is available for purchase. More information about Alvarez’s journey is available through Local 10’s Good News South Florida page.
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