Just about everything that could happen to an Iditarod musher has happened to Jerry Austin.

In 1980, he and Dick Mackey had to kill a moose that attacked their teams. They were charged with wasting the meat, but the charges weredropped.

In 1985, he broke his hand running into a tree. He taped it up and finished the race.

In 1993, he organized and led a procession of 17 mushers, who had been trapped by weather in White Mountain, under the burled arch inNome.

In 1995, he stopped a charging moose with an explosive shot fired from a flare pistol.

Last year, he swore he saw a pair of polar bears near the trail along the arctic coast.

Just about everything that could happen, all right. Everything except winning. Austin has run in 19 Iditarods. He has finished in the top 10 six times.But his best finish was a third in 1982.

On the other hand, he did help save another musher's life. In 1989, Austin was running among the rookies in about the middle of the pack whenthey came upon musher Mike Madden, sick and delirious. They kept him warm and fed him, but he didn't get better. They were a long way fromthe help Madden needed. So Austin and another musher raced to the nearest town, returning with a helicopter that evacuated Madden to thehospital. Then Austin mushed Madden's team the 30 miles to town. He finished just out of the money that year, but won the sportsmanship awardfor the second time.

''How often the name Austin comes up in the mushing community and during races,'' wrote reader Stan Smith. ''Someone needed a ride, rescue ateam/driver, lost their headlamp, sunglasses? Jerry was always there to assist.''

Jerry Austin may never have won the Iditarod, but over a long career he has won the respect of his fellow mushers and the admiration of fans.As reader Linda Morning wrote, ''Maybe they should just call him the 'Official Guardian Angel' of the Iditarod.''