SEARCH PICKS UP FOR PILOT DOZENS JOIN EFFORT TO FIND OFFICER LOST SINCE JUNE.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

TEHACHAPI - Forty volunteers are spending the holidays searching the Tehachapi Mountains for an Air Force Reserve officer who disappeared last summer while para-gliding.

The searchers, many of them childhood friends from Pennsylvania, are searching for Ron Rosepink in an effort to assist his wife and his three children.

Unable to collect life insurance because his body has not been found, Deborah Rosepink has had to sell the family's Colorado home while one of his children has left college in order to cut expenses.

``It's not OK with us that this guy is still out there,'' said Al Wallace, coordinator of the search effort and a longtime friend of Rosepink.

Rosepink, a reserve lieutenant colonel and test pilot who flew F-16s out of Edwards Air Force Base, had gone para-gliding alone, as he did quite often, June 28 west of Tehachapi near Highway 202 and Cummings Valley Road.

His car was found parked at a popular gliding spot, but no sign of Rosepink or his para-glider was found despite two weeks of searching.

Many of the searchers were Civil Air Patrol cadets with Rosepink in their teen years.

Others are outdoor athletes who participate in Eco-Challenge events, such as mountaineering, river rafting and horseback riding.

The Eco-Challenge athletes will be searching this weekend; the CAP personnel will continue to search until Friday.

Rosepink was actually a Colorado resident, but he commuted to California for work, staying with a friend in Rosamond. In addition to flying jet fighters, Rosepink piloted hot-air balloons and para-glided.

While a student at the Air Force Academy, Rosepink had been on its parachuting team.

``Anything that flew, Ron was testing the envelope,'' Wallace said.

Para-gliding is similar to hang-gliding, but para-gliders use a device similar to a parachute, guided by a system of handles. Para-gliders can reach heights of 15,000 feet and glide for up to 10 miles.

Rosepink had made more than 80 para-gliding flights before the June 28 flight.

Former astronaut Rick Searfoss, a Tehachapi resident and an Air Force Academy classmate of Rosepink, rounded up community support in feeding the volunteers. Churches, the Antelope Valley chapter of the Air Force Association, the Knights of Columbus, and other service organizations and individuals have chipped in with food.

``The response from the community has been great,'' Searfoss said.

Searfoss, who lives near where Rosepink was last seen, said weather over the Christmas holiday has not cooperated. The visibility dropped to less than 200 feet at times and a storm dropped several inches of snow even in the lower elevations of the Tehachapi Mountains.

``We've been clobbered by weather,'' Searfoss said.

On Friday, the weather had improved, but searchers were encountering 30 mph winds and freezing temperatures.

In June, an extensive search for Rosepink was conducted, involving Kern County Sheriff's Department search and rescue personnel, Civil Air Patrol aircraft, and Edwards military police. The search, involving about 200 people, did not find any clues to Rosepink's whereabouts.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color -- ran in AV edition only) Ron Rosepink, in a 1991 photo, is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve who disappeared June 28.