Posted on 01/22/2007 5:09:46 AM PST by radar101
An Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan took maps of the Mojave Desert and abandoned his car late last week southwest of Needles, sheriffís officials said Sunday. But rescuers ó including volunteers from Redlands and Yucaipa ó helped find the young soldier alive and unhurt Sunday afternoon on a mountaintop south of the Mojave National Preserve, said San Bernardino County sheriffís Deputy Dave Pichotta, who was assigned to the search.
Andrew Stone, 20, of Wisconsin was found alone and uninjured about 1:30 p.m. Sunday on a peak in the Sacramento Mountains, said Pichotta, a volunteer forces coordinator working Sunday in Needles.
Stone, who is reportedly stationed in Georgia, apparently had no ties to the Needles or Mojave Desert areas.
Army officials in Georgia declined to comment Sunday and referred questions about Stone to the 75th Rangers Regiment. A spokesman for the regiment did not respond Sunday to phone messages.
Stone was listed as AWOL ó absent without official leave ó by the Army and may be facing criminal charges in Georgia, sheriffís officials said.
The search for Stone reportedly began Friday. Up to 50 search-and-rescue volunteers from Barstow, Morongo Basin, Needles, Victor Valley, Wrightwood, and Yucaipa joined Army crews in Black Hawk helicopters.
Searchers also rode horses and drove four-wheel ATVs and dirt bikes. The search for Stone was focused on the Sacramento Mountains, south of Interstate 40 and west of Highway 95. Pichotta said the command post for the search was at the sheriffís station in Needles.
Searchers worked around the clock Friday to Saturday afternoon. Sheriffís officials said the weather was at times extremely cold and rainy with temperatures dropping into the low 30s.
The search resumed again early Sunday, with about 40 volunteers involved, Pichotta said.
Stone has been deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq since he joined the Army Rangers, sheriffís officials said. Stone had picked up several Mojave Desert maps Friday from a Bureau of Land Management office before he abandoned his car near the edge of the desert south of Needles.
Contact writer Guy McCarthy at (909) 386-3872 or via e-mail at guy.mccarthy@sbsun.com.
If you're going to be AWOL, at least get a room and some cold ones.
Isn't Needles mentioned in the Snoopy comics?
Yes, where his brother "Spike" lives, I think.
I agree, very strange. Maybe his behaviour can be explained by the post-traumatic stress disorder? I mean, he´s 20, and already has seen the wars in Iraq in Afghanistan, maybe this was too big for him. Definitely, PTSD is a problem for the armed forces, it has ever been so.
Saw too many of his buddies die and needed to get away to think things through. This isn't your average AWOL, this is something in his soul that needed attending.
I dont condemn him at all.
It isnt easy when a country cuts its military to the bone and has to keep sending the same men back over and over to a place with no beer, no women and jail time facing you if you shoot the wrong enemy.
To a certain extent, you're right. I'd caveat that by saying that, having handled a terrorist or two, those f*@kers are crazy. The reason they don't have what we'd call PTSD is because they're not wired right in the head.
There's a happy middle ground between being too soft and being a remorseless killer. As you implied, it requires a certain mental toughness and moral strength. REMFs tend not to get that sort of thing installed. "Oh, I'm just a clerk. I'm just a cook. I'm just a technician." Etc, etc. That makes them less equipped to dealing with war when it lands in their lap. The Army is slowly moving towards the Marine model of "Everyone is a rifleman first", but old habits die hard.
That said, the terrorist model is "I am a direct sevant of God, and all actions I take, no matter how unpleasent, serve the will of Allah. I will be rewarded in heaven for every action I take in his name." The real hard core ones believe that to the core of their being. They trade in their humanity for some extra mental armor. While don't seem to get real PTSD, what they do to override it makes them an abomination.
"I knew many Vietnam vets who were REMFs and suffered PTSD and saw it in few troops who saw repeated action."
When I was in Vietnam I had little time to deal with the former and haven't dealt any since I returned home but I have been in contact with the latter and I find PTSD to be a common ailment.
I think you are as off base as is your statetment. You come across as a piss sorry, angry, old fool. Maybe you are closer to someone with PTSD than you think.
Well said. Add to that a runaway media and numerous Leftists in Congress in your home country that have done everything in their power to make you out to be a murderer and a baby killer. Couple this with constantly being told by these cretins you cannot win, despite being an integral part of the finest military that has ever been fielded that achieved the prime objectives in both theaters faster than ever thought possible and freed 50 milion souls along the way.
If I had all that on my mind, I think I'd head for the mountains, too.
Interesting observation. I agree. In a lot of ways, we have become a lot too "civilized". This needs to change...
If that doesn't get you a severe "ding" from the Administrative Moderator, then nothing will.
I think even Audie Murphy, one of the most decorated men to come out of WWII, had PTSD. Of course, back then, they called it "battle fatigue", and you were just supposed to get over it.
I don't think he did.
I think you may be correct. However, Audie Murphy was treated so badly by the malignantly liberal Hollywood crowd, that he may have also suffered from homeland battle fatigue.
You may be right. Think I'll have to research this one.
Seems to me the desert would be the last place he would want to go.
If I recall correctly, I once read something about Audie having to scratch for work while dealing with bankruptcy issues, and being laughed at by producers.
http://www.audiemurphy.com/biograph.htm
Check this out.
I hope it doesn't. It must have been my anger over those who seek the higher ground by condeming vets who suffer from PTSD.
PTSD is a very real illness that can cling to a person for the balance of their life and keep a person from enjoying even the smallest thing in their life.
When a numbskull spouts off nonsense about the conditions of vets I my over react. In fact I take medication to control that response.
>You come across as a piss sorry, angry, old fool.
Why would anyone, anywhere want to have anything to do with someone as rude and obviously unskilled at human perception as you? Your posts to me are now blocked.
I bet even knights had nightmares or fear. Of course, PTSD occurs when people are not used to the experience of their lives at risk. Therfore, when Taliban are so fanatic that they don´t care about their lives, it´s just normal that they don´t have traumatic experiences. But as long people fear for their lives, they could eventually suffer from PTSD. The better people can deal with stress, the better they will deal with extreme situations, so you´re right in criticizing the abnormal "coddling" of the youth.
My Dad fought two tours in 'Nam, and one in Korea...he doesn't talk much about them, but he has lead a normal life all these years, and doesn't suffer from PTSD. While I never went to war in my 11 years in the Army, I knew a lot of folks who did...both combat arms and REMFs. The only ones I knew who suffered from so-called Gulf War Syndrome were the REMFs. None of the scouts or tankers I knew had any problems at all.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Are we too soft? Absolutely, especially in comparison with the enemy's youth and the conditions in which they are reared. Is the PTSD suffered by the REMFs more a product of fear and, dare I say it, cowardice? Probably so to a great extent. But is PTSD a real problem, especially with the combat troops? You betcha.
Want a 'nam story? I was a couple of years too young to serve but I grew up with it on my TV. One year, it came into our boy scout troop. A young man came in for a few weeks to work with us. Turns out it was therapy for him. He was a machine gunner at a firebase and he and his buddies repelled a night assault. Come morning they discovered they shot up a bunch of kids that were sent in by Jane Fonda's heroes. Messed up that gunner's head something awful. Working with youth was supposed to help him get over it. Get over it? How is that even possible? He is a life-long victim.
This is what our enemy throws at us, then and now. There is no such thing as civilized war and to engage in it extracts a heavy toll on its participants. God Bless our military for facing it to keep us safe and it is a sacred sacrifice that they perform. There is no societial toughening up that we can provide that can prepare a soldier to fight an enemy hiding behind women and children, short of losing our own souls in the process.
It is with this in mind that I comment on the young Ranger who headed for a mountain top. He faced the enemy for us on two battlefronts. Lord knows what kind of stuff he saw. Did he screw up at home and is perhaps just a petty criminal. Maybe. But until we know, he has earned his innocent until proven guilty rights, much moreso than most of the mutts on our streets.
Well said.
" Your posts to me are now blocked."
How'd you do that? I've been wanting a clown filter for years. Is it something new?
Bump for later reading
Better late than never.
Good post!
A 17 year military veteran was killed here in mycounty about a month ago. he had made 3 trips to Iraq and was due to go again. His wife had left him because he was there and not home and he had a bellyful.
he threatened to shoot anyone who came against him and went out his front door with a weapon. The State Police shot him down like a dog. Suicide by cop.
The military needs some sort of program to spot men like this. Men who are serving their country and come home to a wife that didnt wait,taking his kids with her.
I realise the military cannot allow men not to go where they are told,but in some circumstances they could wait off,send them for some other duty. These men have a breaking point and the military should try to spot that and aid these men. A man who has done his duty for 17 yars is now dead, a victim of the war as sure as if he were killed in fallujah.
I think the worst thing they could do is send that Ranger back into combat, not only for him, but for the others that depend on him.
Although many can overcome the strife of war, some cannot. He did his duty, as many will.
We should support him, help him, not condemn him for serving, while there are those that merely sit back and opine.
Thanks.
Tell that to my friend's father who committed suicide just 4 years ago. Believe me, there was nothing "soft" about his upbringing. Keep in mind, I'm not defending the guy in this article, but PTSD is a VERY real thing.
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