Missing Fort Carson soldier found alive
ChipNASA sends us a link about a soldier who became lost during an Expert Field Medical Badge competition. Seems he became disoriented on Fort Carson’s Land Navigation Course, and disappeared for some 36 hours before nearly becoming road kill on U.S. Highway 115.
While the soldier’s name and rank wasn’t specifically mentioned..
From the article:
A Fort Carson soldier who went missing for 36 hours was found alive and in good condition Wednesday morning, according to a news release from the Colorado base.
A passing motorist on U.S. Highway 115 found the soldier on the west side of Fort Carson at about 9:45 a.m., the release stated. Emergency personnel delivered the soldier, who has not been identified, to Evans Army Community Hospital to be evaluated and receive any necessary medical treatment.
“The soldiers of our brigade are tremendously relieved that our soldier has been recovered safely,” said Col. Dave Zinn, commander of 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. “The soldier has displayed physical and mental toughness as a soldier and persevered through a challenging situation.”
The soldier became lost during an Expert Field Medical Badge competition and was last seen at about 9:45 p.m. Monday on foot at the fort’s Land Navigation Course, which is located along the southeastern corner of the post near the Pueblo West area and closer to Interstate 25.
The terrain of the Fort Carson training area is brushy, uneven and home to wildlife including bears and mountain lions. Temperatures overnight Monday and Tuesday dipped into the 40s.
Emergency personnel and search and rescue teams from Fremont, El Paso and Douglas counties and more than 1,700 Fort Carson soldiers participated in the 24-hour, multiday search, according to the release. Additionally, 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, and Flight for Life helicopters also participated in the search.
The search operation forced officials to postpone a full-scale exercise that had been slated for Wednesday aimed at testing the post’s emergency response and recovery systems for an active shooter scenario.
“I want to extend my deepest appreciation to all of the soldiers of Fort Carson, along with the Colorado Springs community, for their diligent work while searching for and bringing our soldier home,” Zinn said.
Fort Carson has about 24,000 soldiers and is the base for the 4th Infantry Division and the Army’s World Class Athlete program. Its main post is about 140,000 acres in size with an additional 236,000-acre training site about 150 miles southeast of the base.
Thanks Chip- glad he was found, unhurt. The article in it’s entirety may be viewed here: American Military News
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Category: Army, Guest Link, Search and Rescue, Training Incidents
Glad he was found. Hope he gets some extra coaching on LandNav.
Disoriented in the wilderness is unpleasant.
Never ever admit to being lost.
The proper term is “I got turned around”.
Nathan Wyeth: Haven’t you ever been lost? Henry Frapp: Hmmm… been fearsome confused for a month or two, but I ain’t never been lost!
Quote from “The Mountain Men”.
Great flick- on my ‘must watch’ list.
Oh yes, disoriented is definitely unpleasant. I got “turned around” hunting on property we had hunted for years. I finally sat my butt down and calmed myself. Used the sun and set a course that led to a field that led to my truck. A cold pop and a sandwich were welcomed.
36 hours of camping that’s a lifetime for some MOS’s.
??Expert Field Medical Badge Competition??? dahell???
Guess he failed the course and ain’t gonna get the Badge??? Did he at least get a ribbon for finding they highway?
Glad he’s OK, prolly won’t ever live it down. Good thing he didn’t become Big Kitty or Bear Scat.
“…ribbon for finding the highway…”
Funny stuff there, Sir.
Permission to steal, over;
Granted! Welcome back, we’ve missed you (but our aim is getting better)(grin). Hope you’re OK.
Thanks, 5th/77. Doing ok.
I find the issues of veterans (combat or not) pertinent to my frame(s) of mind.
Peace to all.
Shame on posers.
3/10/MED/b out
Moon has been very bright this week, where it gets through the overcast. I wonder if Pikes Peak might offer a silhouette against the western skyline.
Good to hear that the troop has been recovered. All-in-all, probably better to spend the night downrange in Colorado than in the swamps around Ft. Polk.
Could be a teaching opportunity from the story.
I was at Carson for 3 years, you always know which way is west because NORAD has a big ole’ fucking red flashing light on the mountain that you can see from about anywhere in the state. Getting THAT lost in Ft. Carson is a mystery to me. Dude must have been some dipshit LT.
In northern Maine just listen for the sound of Jake Brakes in the morning and head that way.
I too was at Ft. Carson for three years (75-78) and ran the PNCOC Land Navigation course in that same general area. To get “lost” turned around or what ever you want to call it is impossible. All you have to remember is to head west. Keep the Cheyenne mountain Antennas on your right and you are good to go. Sounds like to much dependence on GPS and not enough on map and compass. we had to find 55 gallon drums from up to 3 miles away.
That is why the Marines issue each land navigation course lieutenant a lance corporal (told to me by a Marine).
Nice! Likely a ‘fresh’ 2lt!
I was a 3rd-grader at Ft. Carson when they were blasting the hole for NORAD. Nobody knew what was going on. Well …. nobody in my 3rd grade class knew.
36 hours… mental and physical toughness…
Mmmkay
I’m looking forward to reading all the apologies that will be printed here when it turns out that this soldier wasn’t a Second Lieutenant.
Lighten up, Francis.
“The soldier has displayed physical and mental toughness as a soldier and persevered through a challenging situation.”
Great citation for an award of some kind……
The Air Force probably has a ribbon for that.
Good deal that the Troop was found alive, he or she isn’t going to live this down at the Unit, might be the subject of the next Safety Briefing!
Isn’t there an app for this?
I say assign as a medic to a Scout Platoon.
I don’t envy anyone who gets lost in unfamiliar terrain, but I have a couple of questions:
– If there’s a landmark (like that Big Red Light), are these students not taught to look for it?
– Was he with a group? If so, how did he get separated?
– Don’t they equip people in this training course with walkie-talkies for just this kind of thing?
I went through a few courses that Land Nav was part of, and we were required to have a whistle on us in the event that someone got disoriented or lost, next we’ll be hearing about Troops having to carry a VS-17 as well?
A PT belt, properly worn, could’ve prevented this near-catastrophe.
Ok. Now that there is just funny.
Obviously, whoever it was that got lost had enough sense to look for signs of a road, which would be headlights in the dark. That’s a plus.
But still, a 50-mile walkie-talkie for a competition only makes sense.
It’s not a competition…. it’s basic standards testing to be awarded a badge. And by the way for all of you picking on butter bars every officer started out as a butter bar well not every officer but most officers even us Mustangs.
And CSM Basil Plumley started out as a dumb PVT. The difference is that we don’t allow inexperienced PVT’s to wander off into the deep dark woods alone.
The lack of gender pronouns in the article is an interesting omission. The only thing more trite than a lost second lieutenant is a woman that can’t navigate.
Glad the soldier’s safe of course. This’ll be a hard one for them to live down. Next year I bet they ace land nav on the EFMB test.
I know this is legendary, but I once found a newly 2LT in the cupola of his APC trying or orient his map using a compass. I pointed out he had to move at least 20 feet away from that hunk of steel before he could get an accurate compass reading. I wonder if this was a night compass course, because many more get misoriented at night than on day courses. We had people missing for several hours or until daylight on most of the ones I participated in. MIA for 36 hours is pretty epic.
Old school lensatic compass, topo map and plastic overlay grid protractor is the way to go. We had a discussion about this last year.
Some people would get lost in a paper bag.
In Boy Scouts we were taught that moss grows on the north side of a tree.
So years later while working as a woodcutter I looked. Yep.
Moss grows on the side of the tree that gets the most sun.
In America and Canada – the south side of the tree.
In South America – the north side of the tree.
I was kicked out of Boy Scouts
talk about trees, a friend of mine and myself were taking a walk and the dog started to growl and point his tail at the tree so my friend tells me that the dogs says that it is a dogwood tree so I ask my friend how he knew what kind of a tree it was so my friend said by it’s BARK. Grin.
We have these large black beetles called Pine Bark Borers.
You can hear them chewing under the bark thus the local name Beetle Barkers.
They love to land on your back in the spot you can’t reach. Head for the nearest tree and squash them with your back. Painful bite.
They didn’t teach that in Boy Scouts.
It came natural like.
I completely agree every Soldier sailor and Airman should know how to navigate with a lensatic compass protractor and a topographical map. They should be tested and know how to conduct a resection or intersection, they should know all basic terrain features unfortunately our leaders don’t think that way.
Gold bars and a compass are a bad combination….;-)
I’ll just leave these here. A couple of my favorites.
http://i.pinimg.com/originals/54/20/cd/5420cde715a3fca53f0cd55b90cb7312.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mG0WhU4.jpg
Two words. “Panic Azimuth”.
Musta issued him/her a map… everyone should know a map is green Krytonite to a butterbar.
I don’t know if they moved the land nav course but when I was at Ft Carson back in the early 90’s you had no excuse for getting this lost on the land nav course. You had the mountains to the West and you knew they ran North-South. If you somehow found yourself on hardball, you knew you were outside of the course. Of course the night my company was doing night land nav for EIB testing, it was a moonless night, but I still found all of my points and made it back to the test station with time to spare.
Forgot to add, you know what the 4ID patch represents, right? It’s 4 2Lts all pointing North.
As a 4ID alum, thanks for that.
4TH ID my ownself, rgr769…..
1st Plt, Alpha, 2/35th. (Cacti Blue)
What unit you?
Co. C, 3rd Bn/12th Inf. Later, I went to the Americal when the 4thID was deactivated in Dec., 1970.
You would have to bring that up…. im a 4th ID alum as well… lol
My two LT’s in my company in the 4th ID were both 1Lt’s. But they weren’t assigned until about a six weeks before we were deactivated. During most of my time as a company commander, my platoon leaders were E-7’s. I was the only officer in the company besides the XO, who always stayed in the rear in the Division base camp.
This video never gets old.
I believe I posted it here awhile back, but still laugh my azz off every time I view it.
Turn your speakers up a tad, but not blaring to enjoy it more.
Enjoy. (smile)
Know about where you are by looking at topo’s, have a compass and go in one direction till you hit something. It’s Colorado not friggen Alaska.
36hrs? Glad he didn’t fall down a canyon and break a leg or something which could have been nasty but seriously….
He took a 35 hour nap then decided he better get lost real quick. 😂
Give that man a 4th ID patch!
Aren’t 2nd lts required to be tethered to a corporal with a compass? Sorta like some parents tether their more adventurous but impulsive toddlers?
What in the actual f$%^ ? This person wasn’t able to hear helo’s or even bother to go in the direction they were flying? How in the hell does one not hear helo’s?
Jumping Hesus H. …..
All you have to do when you’re lost is look at your map and shake a tree. You’ll see it move on the map. Or… hold the map at eye level, flat and horizontal. Now launch a flare…
Just throw a Flaming Squirrel up in the air!😆