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I made many interesting trips with Colonel Shaeffer, my boss. He and I would usually get an Interpreter and head out. On this one trip, we drove to Wenshan. The jeep we used, had a broken speedometer, which we needed to measure distances, so we borrowed one from a local unit's Motor Pool. After driving a number of miles, the Colonel asked to drive. After a short time we stopped to take some pictures of a bridge site. After getting out of the jeep, I heard a Chinese yell something and turned to see the jeep headed down the road. I tried to stop it, but just as I touched the wheel the right front tire was over the edge and over she went. It dropped about 15' and landed on its nose. I was hit in the knee by the shovel in the rack on the side. The jeep's frame was twisted along with a few other broken parts.

We lucked out when a GI truck came by very shortly and took us into the next village. Later we flew back to Wenshan, where I went to recover our jeep. The Major wanted to know where his jeep was and when I told him it would be in on the next truck, he blew his cool. I guess he had a point as his jeep only had 500 miles on it. When he stopped for breath, I suggested he save his comments for the Colonel, as he had been the driver. End of discussion.