Lucas was born in Sonora, lived in Twain Harte and grew up in the mountains of Tuolumne County. He attended Twain Harte Elementary School and Summerville High School. Growing up Luc loved the outdoors. His activities included: fishing(we remember catch, kiss, and release at the secret fishing spot), fly fishing with Jim Lupo, snowboarding at Dodge Ridge, rock climbing with Brad Young, bouldering, guitar playing, and golfing. Luc worked at I Love Pizza in Twain Harte and Heidi’s Ski Shop. Luc was a great student who got good grades and loved to learn.
Luc’s grandfather was Bob Mathias a two-time Olympic Decathlon winner, so Luc was always interested in fitness and athletics. He ate a healthy vegetarian diet. He got his Black Belt in Tae kwon DO working with owner, Steve Tripp. Luc played 4 years of soccer and received many awards. He was the team’s ‘keeper of the goal’ and made a few exciting saves while protecting that goal
At Summerville Luc took advanced classes and Spanish all four years. He eventually became fluent in Spanish and Italian. (Later in life when he lived in Italy a bakery clerk was amazed when she turned around and saw Luc in his Air Force uniform; while her back was turned she thought he was an Italian by his accent.) While serving as a Student Representative on the SHS Board of Education Luc planned and implemented a campus-wide clean-up program that had fellow students picking up liter with the incentive of being able to leave school 15 minutes early. The seniors loved it and the campus was spotless! Other interests at SHS were JSA Junior States Man of America, doing lots of debating, playing with the Golf Team, and taking guitar lessons at Live Oak Music. He served as Student Body President his last year at Summerville. He developed an interest in the military by joining Air Force Jr. ROTC. He was fortunate to also be able to do soccer camps with USAF Academy during the summer months.
Luc’s Senior Project was bolting 2 climbing routes on Table Mountain. Brad Young was his mentor for this project. Luc went on to graduate in the top 10% of his class in 1999. He received a private scholarship and used that to obtain his private pilot’s license with training he took at the ground school at local Columbia airport.His interest in photography came about when his great grandpa Wiser gave him a camera-Luc was often out in the “perfect light” to capture the perfect picture and his beautiful photos portray his love of travel and the world around him.
Luc’s brother, Alex, attended Summerville; he was 2 years behind Luc. They were the best of friends. Alex is currently an Air Force officer and is married to Britton. They have a sweet little boy named Caleb. Luc’s Mom, Romel, and stepdad live in Twain Harte. And Luc’s brother, Chance, and his wife, Krystyn live in Monterey. Luc has aunts and cousins in both California and Colorado. Once Luc’s grandmother, Melba, did a tandem sky-dive with Luc on her 70th birthday (she is now 89). She says she misses Luc every day.
Cassy Williams, a SHS graduate, became Luc’s sweetheart and then wife. They married in 2006. Serene Gruenther, Luc and Cassy’s daughter was born in February 2013, just a few days after Luc’s death. Although Luc never met Serene, he was overjoyed to be expecting her and thought of her name while he was in high school.
Some of Luc’s high school friends included: Eli Doster, David Twining, Nolan Lamb, Manny Gentinetta, Heidi Lupo, Janelle Williams, Jamie Huffman, Dan Zeffaro, Kit VanKirk, Samantha Artzer, Dana Rea, Ryan Behee, Hannah Coats, Brooke Angle, Victoria Mejia, Holly Lavagnio, Amy Sperry, Lisa Garnin, Cali Alomia, Michael Haslip, Derrick West, Glen Fox, and Je Schneider. Luc has many friends.
Luc was appointed to the US Air Force Academy by Congressman John Dolittle. The Academy intensely focused on academics, leadership, and fitness. Luc excelled at all three and graduated at the top of his class. Auntie “M” was Luc’s Sponsor at the Academy in Colorado Springs. Luc was on the Wings of Green and the Blue Parachute Teams at the Academy.
He was also a part of the 4-Way Competition Team “Ufouria” which traveled the USA and were famous for tandem-jumping into football games. Luc was jump master and also helped a few generals free fall jump for the first time. Luc got his own parachute and jumped a few times after graduating from the Academy. Luc decided to build a climbing wall and climbing club program at the Academy, which got cadets interesting in mastering the climbing wall and climbing as a sport. Luc would climb whenever and wherever he could and attempted El Capitan with Nolan but they were deterred by climbers in advance of them and timed out. Luc was the Golf Team manager at the Academy, so he could golf whenever he liked, but he had to pick up a lot of dirty towels into the bargain.
Luc loved running and ran a 1⁄2 marathon in Budapest, Hungary, a full marathon in Switzerland, and an ultra (50 miles) over extreme terrain in Magreti, Italy, where his ground crew including his mom and his wife, Cassy, got lost. His stepdad, Joe, ended up running the last 10 miles with him.
Luc loved his dog, Jess, and he taught her many tricks and took her rock climbing in his backpack. He would also teach tricks to friend’s dogs who came for visits. Animals and children gravitated towards Luc.
US AIR FORCE CAREER
Major Gruenther earned his commission from the United States Air Force Academy in 2003, where he was a Distinguished Graduate and a member of the Parachute Team, “Wings of Blue.” He went on to attend Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training at Sheppard AFB, Texas in 2004. Following pilot training he remained at Sheppard and served as a T-37 Instructor Pilot until attending the F-16 Basic Course in 2009 with the 162nd Fighter Squadron in Springfield, Ohio. Major Gruenther flew with the world famous, high respected, “Triple Nickle” where he has served as the Assistant Chief of Training, Chief of Plans and combat F-16 pilot during Operation Enduring Freedom. Luc accumulated over 400 combat hours. He went on to earn his Master’s Degree from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and was a Distinguished Graduate of Squadron Officer School.
Major Gruenther then went on as a F-16 Flight Lead and the Chief of Flight Safety for the 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy. As Chief of Flight Safety, he developed and executed all aspects of the wing commander’s flight safety mishap prevention and response program. He was responsible for conducting mishap investigations and safety inspections. Additionally, Major Gruenther directed various working groups wrote and maintained the wing Mishap Response Plan, and coordinated safety concerns on all matters relating to airfield construction and maintenance.
Luc lived in Twain Harte, California, USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, Wichita Falls, Texas (Sheppard AFB),Springfield, Ohio (Springfield Air National Guard Base), Mania go , Italy (Aviano), and deployed to Bigram, Afghanistan AFB (where he supported ground troupes). Luc traveled to many US states and visited many countries and beautiful places including Mexico, Peru, Switzerland, Norway, France, Spain, Greece, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Saint Lucia, Slovenia, Austria, Costa Rica, Croatia, Malta, Monaco, and Hungary.
Luc visited Summerville High School and gave an interesting heartfelt presentation to the students and staff after his deployment to Afghanistan. (you can view his speech at MLGLF.org).
Eight years ago USAF Major Lucas, GAZA, Gruenther was flying his F16 over the Adriatic Sea in a night training mission. The weather was terrible, and Luc with no visibility, unable to see a horizon, wearing night vision goggles, became spatially disoriented. With alarms sounding, Betty bitching, and tremendous G forces on his human body, Luc’s jet plunged through the air, dropping 30,000 feet in mere seconds, Luc ejected into the ocean. His jet followed crashing into a million pieces. We searched for Luc for 3 long days, the worked praying for his recovery. Luc was found by Italian fishermen, he had not survived.
That day we lost an amazing young man. Luc was a true and honorable humanitarian. There is not a person on Earth who has a bad thing to say about Luc. Luc had an uncanny ability to communicate with children and animals as well as adults; he had supportive FAIP (Instructor Pilot) abilities and he had regard and respect for family, friends, and complete strangers and dynamic courage to live everyday of his life with gusto. Luc served and loved America. It is difficult to describe exactly how wonderful Luc was. He was a great communicator, always did his best, was helpful, smart, fit, wise and funny with a great smile. Everyone wanted to be around Luc; he listened and was a great friend-he was just a good guy. We miss him terribly. Luc accomplished so many things but he is mostly remembered for how he treated people and animals.
The Major Lucas Gruenther Legacy Foundation was founded in 2015 to bestow scholarships to Americans for the advancement of education goals and development thereby strengthening and benefitting the community at large through individual enhancement. The foundation is an IRS tax exempt 501(c) (3) corporation.
Luc’s Foundation gives scholarships to people who Live Like Luc. Scholarships are given to Family Members of Fallen Heroes, Americans pursuing their passion and Summerville High School seniors. The dynamic people who work for Luc’s Foundation volunteer their time and talent so all proceeds other than basic required expenses go directly to the scholarship program.
We mourn his loss and we are grateful for the support in the memory of Luc. Scholarships in Luc’s name let him live on while helping others to pursue their passion. “Live Like Luc!”
Luc’s Run — every year in May. May 15, 2021, All Virtual. Run anywhere in the world. Kid’s Run; 2 mile walk/run, 10K, and 1⁄2 Marathon, Register at LucsRun.com.
GAZA Hero WOD — Presented by Crossfit Sonora every year in January. January 30, 31, 2021 Virtual or on-site. Register at: www.gazawod.com
Smile Amazon: For Major Lucas Gruenther Legacy Foundation. Sign-up with Amazon Smile and a small percentage of your purchases will to Luc’s Foundation.