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.
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