KVOA

Posted: Nov 4, 2009 8:16 PM
Updated: Nov 4, 2009 8:33 PM

CORPUS CHRISTI - The Coast Guard suspended its search for Lt. John Houston on Sunday, but his family, friends and volunteers are still out looking for him.

Houston disappeared a week ago today during a routine training flight. The body of his crewmate, Lt. Bret Miller, was recovered Friday, but friends and family of Houston haven't given up hope of finding him alive. Over 20 people from the Marines and just regular citizens met at Port Aransas from all over the country to take a boat to San Jose Island back there.

They believe Houston is still alive and could be there.

"I don't know Joe, I've never met him. All I know is that he's a military pilot and we're all pilots here, we look out for one another," search volunteer Matt Cave said.

"We're doing it to help the friend and loved one find him and I think this will augment the Navy search," volunteer Jill Melin said. "We want to break up into teams of six, with a team lead for each team."

They were broken up into three teams to eventually cover over 20 miles of land on San Jose Island.

 "I just want to make sure we stay together and keep accountability of them and make sure they get back at the end of the day and don't leave anyone else out there searching for Joe," team leader Jake Frederich said.

The search teams are making sure they're equipped with a lot of water and bug spray since they'll be searching all day and there's so much land to cover. It might take all week or longer but those people are here to stay.

"We're excited to be here, we want to take him back to his family, that's all that really matters," volunteer Tory Steinhauser said.