JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Jack “Bubba” Dalrymple, 15, of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, lives life in the fast lane.
“He’s always had an adventurous spirit,” said his mom, Cara Dalrymple.
The hunting, fishing, hiking, football- and baseball-playing, wrestling, wakeboarding, wake-surfing, snowboarding, CrossFit, martial arts, and jiu-jitsu practicing, homeschooled high-schooler has seemingly done it all. Skydiving is still on his to-do list, though. So is buying a motorcycle when he turns 16.
“Yeah, I’m gonna,” he said.
Jack’s need for speed started early — he got a dirt bike at age 4. Unfortunately, his own body couldn’t take him as fast as he wanted to go: He was born with a heart defect called tricuspid atresia. But after multiple open-heart surgeries and two 2026 hospitalizations due to pneumonia, Jack’s sense of adventure hasn’t waned.
“He just recovers and gets back to normal life,” Cara said.
So, when one of Jack’s doctors asked this year if he wanted to participate in a Make-A-Wish experience — an opportunity provided by the nonprofit Make-A-Wish organization that creates wishes for children with critical illnesses — he jumped at the chance. And in August, Jack, his five siblings and his parents went to Alaska for the outdoor fly-fishing adventure he chose.
“I have always loved being outdoors,” Jack said, explaining that he likes the allure of just fishing and being in nature, in the middle of nowhere. He also wanted to try his hand at fly fishing.
Make-A-Wish made it happen. The Dalrymples enjoyed a full-day, fly-fishing excursion on the Kenai River, and additional activities in Kenai Fjords National Park. They attended a blueberry festival, hiked, braved a suspension bridge, went on a Kenai Fjords glacier tour, and “caught a ton of fish,” Jack said, listing salmon and trout.
“By the end, we were already planning our trip for next year, to go back,” said Jack’s dad, Lt. Col. John Dalrymple, commander of the Washington Air National Guard’s 194th Security Forces Squadron. “And Bubba also decided he’s going to be a guide on the Kenai when he’s 18.”
Jack described the experience as “definitely cool.”
“Especially with the entire family just being all there, yeah, that was very special to me,” he said.
It meant a lot to Jack’s mom to have everyone there, too.
“For our whole family, it’s like we’ve been through some really deep valleys, and so it makes things like this and enjoying this sort of a trip together as a family that much more sweet,” Cara said.
Jack’s ready for his next adventure. He’s looking for places to fly fish near JBLM and hoping to learn how to surf in Hawaii this winter. In the meantime, he’ll be starting freshman year, selling ice cream outside the Lewis Main Exchange, and talking about doing what his mom calls “daredevil things.”
She once asked him, “Why do you want to be so daring and risk your life like this? You’ve already faced death so many times.”
In response, Jack quoted the 1986 movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
“The main thing is, there’s no guarantees,” Jack said. “If you get a chance to do it, do it right then, because you don’t know if you’re going to be able to do it again.”