Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Park was driving near Naval Support Activity Crane when he spotted a bald eagle on the side of the road, unable to fly and clearly in dire condition. He stopped his car to direct traffic around the bird, then teamed up with Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Mitchell Brimner to try to capture it — a task that took roughly an hour and eventually required a modified, ventilated box and backup from the base's environmental office and fellow security colleagues.
The juvenile eagle they found was in rough shape. According to InkFreeNews, the bird was emaciated from being unable to hunt or feed properly, and experts later estimated it was roughly a year old. A passing motorist gave the officers the phone number for Raptor Rise Rehabilitation Center, and founder Lola Nicholson drove straight to the security gate at Naval Weapons Station Crane to collect the eagle.
Once in Nicholson's care, veterinary evaluation revealed the eagle had been diagnosed with two strains of avian pox, including the severe diphtheritic, or “wet,” form of the disease. The wet form causes plaques on mucous membranes of the mouth, pharynx, trachea, and esophagus; wart-like growths around the eyes are associated with the dry form, according to the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab. In this eagle's case, the infection caused one eye to swell and foam, per InkFreeNews, severely impairing its vision and leaving the young bird likely unable to hunt or feed — and probably abandoned by its parents once it fell ill.
Months of Treatment at a 30-Acre Rehab Facility
Raptor Rise Rehabilitation Center, based in nearby Bedford, Indiana, put the eagle through months of medical treatment, quarantine, flight training and hunting training at its 30-acre facility, the outlet reports. Staff eventually named the bird Freedom, a nod to both America's semiquincentennial and the military heritage of Naval Weapons Station Crane. Melissa Brown put the stakes of the rescue plainly, saying of Brimner and Park, “they absolutely saved Freedom's life.”
Defense media imagery confirmed that Nicholson personally released Freedom back into the wild at Naval Support Activity Crane on September 21, according to DVIDS. Brimner and Park, both of whom work as uniformed security officers at the base, were on hand to witness the eagle they'd rescued return to flight over the same installation where they first found it grounded. Brimner summed up the instinct that drove the rescue: “We didn't want to just leave it because it is a bald eagle and the national bird.”
A Base Built for Eagles — and Repeat Rescues
Nicholson called Crane “an ideal place for them,” and the numbers back her up. The base currently hosts two active bald eagle nesting pairs that typically produce one to two young eagles each year, with eagles first successfully nesting there back in 1993. This was not NSA Crane's first eagle rescue, either — base personnel previously partnered with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources in January 2022 to rescue and rehabilitate an injured female bald eagle, which was released back on the installation after 52 days of care.
The habitat helping these birds thrive is enormous. Naval Support Activity Crane covers more than 98 square miles, or roughly 64,000 acres, across Martin, Greene and Lawrence counties, making it the third-largest naval installation in the world by land area, according to Military Installations. That sprawling, heavily wooded footprint coexists with serious defense work — Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division employs more than 3,800 people, including 2,500 scientists, engineers and technicians. Crane Army Ammunition Activity, established in October 1977 as part of Army Sustainment Command, is also headquartered there and manages the full life cycle of conventional munitions as a component of the Army's organic industrial base.
Part of a Statewide Comeback
Freedom's recovery fits into a much larger story of Indiana's bald eagles clawing back from near-total disappearance. Bald eagles had vanished from the state by 1900, and between 1985 and 1989 the Indiana Department of Natural Resources imported 73 eagle chicks from Wisconsin and Alaska for release at Lake Monroe, according to Visit Indiana. That effort led to the state's first successful modern eagle nest in 1991. Indiana's population has since grown from zero active nesting territories in the late 1970s to more than 350 breeding pairs spread across 84 Hoosier counties by 2025, Purdue Extension reports.
Bald eagles were removed from the federal endangered species list in 2007.
Federal Protections Still Apply
Even with bald eagles off the endangered species list, they remain protected under the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, which prohibits capturing, trapping or disturbing a bald eagle without federal authorization. First-offense criminal violations under the law can carry fines up to $100,000 and up to a year in prison, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
