Posted on 01/22/2007 9:09:07 PM PST by jmc1969
An Army Ranger absent without leave after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan was captured on a remote mountaintop by military and local searchers who had been scouring the Mojave Desert region for days.
Andrew Stone, 20, of Wisconsin abandoned his car Friday and took area maps into the wilderness. He was listed as AWOL by the Army and may face criminal charges in Georgia, where Stone is stationed, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said.
Led by two Army Black Hawk helicopters, searchers on horseback and off-road vehicles found Stone on a peak Sunday south of the Mojave National Preserve, sheriff's Deputy Dave Pichotta said.
Some 50 searchers from Barstow, Morongo Basin, Needles, Victor Valley, Wrightwood and Yucaipa participated in the hunt. Stone has no known ties to the area, about 90 miles south of Las Vegas near the California-Arizona border.
(Excerpt) Read more at lompocrecord.com ...
Searching for Carlos Casteneda?
what was he thinking?
Sounds like Ft Irwin to me
I don't know what is so strange about this report. It makes perfect sense to me to find a ranger on top of a mountain in the middle of no where. There are certain things that get into your blood.
The Mojave Desert is nice this time of year.
I am distressed that such a person did not evade well enough.
However it is reassuring that we are capable of finding the same individual in that environment.
It's probably pretty cold. Usually the Mohave has ice everywhere on Winter mornings .. but this is a cold Winter in Soutern California.
"Climb every mountain...(The Sound of Music theme)"
Yes, I remember sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag, no tent, in the Mojave during the winter back in the 70s. It was cold.
Nope! 160 miles to the east from Ft. Irwin. Just south of
I-40, west of Needles. Cool in the Winter. Deadly in the Summer! Go to: www.sbsun.com for the Monday AM news.
Something stinks in this story. Like some missing or made up facts. The guy was in Afghanistan AND Iraq, and he's 20 years old?
20 years also has 11 months and 30 days before you become 21. The timeline sounds OK to me.
Ok, but something is still missing from the story.
Why is the army trying so hard to bring one AWOL soldier in? Why not just wait until he needs his SSN to get a job somewhere and then send a Sherrif's Deputy out to his house to pick him up? Something doesn't add up here.
Here's the part you all seem to be missing. They have left a sh** load of stuff out of this report: For instance, what ciminal charges? This is more than just a simple AWOL.
Bingo! Exactly my question. The Army doesn't make this big a deal out of any single AWOL soldier, without some other reason. Something's missing from this story.
The Mojave desert is always nice.
When a couple of Black Hawk helicopters are dispatched for the search, you better believe it.
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