Alive and Alone (21 page)

Turning to Vittles, Banks asked, “Is that all it does here, snow?”

Grinning, the old miner said, “Yup, but usually only from about September to May or so, although I’ve seen ‘er snow in August before.”  Vittles then grinned at his joke.

“Let’s move, because it’s too cold to make small talk right now.  My thermometer showed a temperature of minus fifteen a few minutes ago.”

Moving forward, Vittles replied, “We’ve seen it colder.  I can remember one year, it got so cold the bears were wearing parkas.”

All laughed and then it became quiet as each thought of where they were and the chances of being rescued.  Vittles wasn’t worried much because he knew the land, Banks wanted his mission to be a success, and David just wanted to go home to his mother and sister.

Hours later, they walked into a small grove of trees lining the river.  The forest was stunted and none of the trees was over seven feet tall, but with a shelter, it would offer protection from the wind.

Banks said, “David, I need you to find all the dead wood you can.  You might have to break some off the trees.  Usually the lower limps will be the dead ones, if there are any on the tree.”

“I’ll get the shelter up, if one of ya’ll get a fire goin’.  I’m cold and it’s pretty nippy out here,” Vittles said as he pulled an old tarp from his backpack.

“I’ll have one burning in a few minutes.”

Banks quickly gathered tinder, kindling, and enough wood to make his fire and within minutes, the flames were flickering loudly.  Vittles came to the fire, held his palms to the heat and smiled when he said, “Nothin’ like a good fire to make a man feel like he ain’t no caveman!”

Banks, looked around the area, and then said, “This is a good spot.  We’re in a long wide valley and if a plane fly’s near us, I should be able to use the radio.  Only, once the camp is established, we’ll put some signals out too.  Next aircraft I hear I want to take me home.”

“We’ll survive.  Actually, other than the cold we’re pretty safe.”

“Safe yes, but not home.”

Vittles shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Sooner or later, ya’ll get back.  The key is to stay alive until your chopper comes.”

“I know we will, but I’ll bet my wife is worried to death.  The Air Force most likely terminated the search, which to them will mean I’m dead, but my wife won’t believe I’m dead until she see’s my body.”

“Good woman ya have then.”

Chuckling, Banks replied, “Yep, she really is, except I don’t tell her often enough.  Seems when you see a person day after day for years, some things go unsaid.”

“After my wife died, I come to understand that part of our marriage.  I always thought we had years left only we didn’t.  Son, when you get home, be sure and tell your wife you love her.  And, tell her every single day of your life after that.”

Getting uncomfortable talking about his marriage and love, Banks called out to David as he approached with an armload of wood, “Bring the wood and let’s check our feet!”

“Our feet?” David asked as he dropped the wood near the fire.

“Yep, our feet, because the way we’re moving our feet are taking a real beating.  And, if our feet quit, we could be in serious trouble.  Now, get your shoes and socks off so I can take a look at them, both of you.”

Other than being red, Vittles’ feet were in good shape, but he was wearing snow boots and they kept his feet very dry and warm.  David’s feet were white and skin was cracked around three of his toes.  Banks saw they were bleeding little and looked as if he’d spend a long time in a bathtub.

“I was afraid this would happen when I gave you my wool socks.  I think you have the beginning of immersion foot.”  He said.

David looked at his fish-belly colored feet and asked, “Is it bad?  I won’t lose my toes will I?”

“No, not at this stage.  I need to dry them good, use some foot powder and let you put on the other socks you have.  You still have your old socks don’t you?”

“Yep, I do.  I’ll put them on and then let these dry by the fire.”

“Let’s do your feet right now because we can’t take a chance with our feet,” Banks replied and then pulled his medical bag to his side.  

A few minutes later, David’s feet were dry, coated with foot powder, and dry socks worn.  He gave a big grin and said, “I didn’t realize my feet were so cold, until you fixed them!  Now they’re as warm as toast!”

“Keep one pair of your socks dry at all times and when you feel your feet get damp, change them.  Immersion foot can cause serious injury if your feet stay wet too long.”

Vittles placed an old can they used to boil coffee in near the flames and added, “I saw this jasper once with trench foot so bad, the skin was a-comin’ off in layers.  While I was dryin’ his feet, they started to bleed and hurtin’ ‘em pretty bad.”

Banks added a small log to the fire and then asked, “I’d imagine he didn’t walk well for a few days, did he?”

“Nope, he hobbled around for almost two weeks on his feet a-fore he could walk without a limp.  Nasty doin’s feet problems are.”

“How come you called it trench foot and Sergeant Banks called it immersion foot?  Aren’t they the same?”  David asked as he put his boots back on and laced them up.

“Yep, they’re the same problem.” Banks replied and then added, “During the First World War, thousands of men were fighting in trenches, and they usually had some water in the bottom of them.  Doctors soon discovered if a man ignored his feet and they stayed wet, he eventually come down with immersion foot.  But, in those days, the military called it trench foot, because that’s were most cases of the injury came from, trenches.  These same doctors discovered if a man kept his feet as dry as possible, used foot powder daily and changed socks when his feet were wet, the injury would almost go away.”

“Almost?”  David asked.

“Yep, almost.  See, it was hard to completely prevent it, because no man alive could keep his feet completely dry all the time while living in a muddy trench for months.  But, the severity of the injury could be greatly reduced through prevention.”

There came a sudden gust of wind and snowflakes began to fall.  The sky overhead was low thick looking white clouds, but not dark gray, so it looked to Banks to be an isolated snowfall.

“Angel One, Save One, do you copy?”  His PRC-90 radio abruptly squawked.

Pulling the radio from his survival vest pocket, remembering he’d turned the radio on a few minutes earlier to monitor the fifteen minute call window.  “Save One, read you five by five.”

“John, this is Zee.  Turn your radio on beeper and walk me to you, over.”

“Roger, understand I am to go to beeper, wait one.”

Banks moved the knob on his radio to beeper and listened as he heard the helicopter near.  When he estimated the aircraft was heading right for him, he flipped the radio button to voice and said, “I hear you and starting the count.  Continue on your current heading.”

“Roger, start the count, Angel One,” Captain Zlotkowski replied.

“Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . . six . . . five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . one . . . . . . over . . . head,
now
!”

“Mark!  Got your location!”  Zee said and then a minute later added, “Cloud cover is too low to pick you up at this time, Angel One, but I have some early Christmas presents for you!”

“What about lowering the penetrator?”

“No can do, having problems with the wench.  It worked fine at Elmendorf, but when we checked it a few minutes ago nothing!  Do you have any special needs at this time?”

Banks knew the question was Zee’s way of asking if they were all okay and without serious medical problems.  “Negative on the special needs, our condition is fine, but running low on food.  Be advised there are three souls on the ground.  I repeat, three on the ground.  All are males, Michael, Alpha, Lima, Echo, Sierra.”

“Copy, three males on the ground and you need food.  I am dropping you two MA-1 raft kits.  So, move a bit and let me know when you’re in a safe position for the drop.”

Turning to Vittles and David, Banks said, “Let’s move about fifty meters east and watch as they drop the kits.  They’ll come as low as they can, go into a hover, and then shove them out of the open door.  We have to move because the kits are very heavy and the last thing we need is an injury.”

A few minutes later, Banks said over the radio, “We have moved fifty meters east.  Drop the kits to the west of our camp.  I repeat, drop to the west of camp.”

“Copy, Angel One, drop west of your position.  Keep your heads down, we’re dropping the kits in three seconds, 3 . . . 2 . . . 1, kits are out of the aircraft!”

Two large yellow containers fell from the clouds and struck the snow with a loud
thud
.  Banks smiled when he saw they landed about fifty feet from their camp.

“Save One, Angel One, the kits are on the ground.”

“Roger on the kits.  Angel One, we have an abort due to weather.  Rescue Center requests you remain at your present location, so the next time I can give y’all a ride home.”

“Copy and we’ll remain here, unless we have a sound reason to move.  If we move, be advised it will be down river, toward the native village.  Confirm you copy, Save One.”

“Copy, you’ll remain in place unless forced to move.  Any future movement will be down river toward the village.”

“Affirmative, Save One.  You have a good day now and hope you’re able to play taxi again soon.”

Banks heard Zee laugh and then reply, “John, I’ll try to pick you up tomorrow or as soon as the weather will allow.  If you have an emergency, use guard to contact someone and have the information relayed to the Command Post.”

“Understand, and will do.  Have a safe flight back.”

“Take care and stay safe until I get back.  Save One, out.”

“Angel One, out,” Banks replied, grinned and said, “Okay, let’s get one of those kits opened and see the goodies inside!  We’ll save the other one for later, if we need it.”

“How do we open one of these things?”  David asked.

“With care, because each has a twenty person life raft inside and it inflates automatically.  While we don’t need the raft, there is enough food, water, signaling gear, more radios and other stuff that will come in handy as we wait.”

“MRE’s?”  The young man asked in excitement, because he loved them.

“Nope, afraid not, usually.  Most likely we’ll have some compressed high energy bars, hard chocolate, coffee, teas, sugar and some other small stuff. I’m more interested in the survival gear and signaling stuff.  Now, it’s possible the Life Support folks packed these kits special for us and if they did, we’ll have a few surprises.”

“Like what?”

“Who knows, but it will be stuff we need to survive with.  Now, I’m not going to inflate the raft, so when I pull these snaps loose, help me roll the raft out.  Once we have the raft out flat, we’ll see the equipment bag.”  Banks said as he pulled the snaps and then grinned as he added, “Ok, now, let’s get this done.”

Ten minutes later the raft was as flat as a pancake and the yellow equipment container was sitting in the middle.  Banks picked it up and moved to the shelter of the trees.  As he walked, he said, “Vittles, if you would place some snow blocks around the edges of the raft, it’ll make a pretty good signal.  It’s bright yellow, so if we can keep falling snow off of it, it’ll help when they return.”

“I can do that and I think that’s a dandy idea.”  The old trapper replied and then moved to start cutting snow blocks.

David added more wood to the almost dead fire and grew excited when Banks lowered the big bag to the snow, and then unzipped the container.  Kneeling beside the bag, he pulled out three sleeping bags, a small stove like he had along with a case of fuel, a large box of MRE’s, a dozen can’s of water, an emergency strobe light, two radios with a box of extra batteries, two knives, casualty blankets, and a lot more.  Looking at it all, the P.J. said, “Life Support packed this special for us, because it’s not configured like a normal kit.  There are even long underwear and hats in this bag.”

“How many meals are in the MRE box?” David asked as he leaned forward.

Placing the box in front of David, Banks chuckled and said, “Count them and see.  I’m sure there are enough until we are rescued.”

A few minutes later, the young man said, “Forty-five and that’s enough for us to each eat three meals a day, for five days!  And, we still have more in the other kit too!”

Handing David four sea marker dyes, Banks said, “This stuff is used to change the water around a lifer aft to florescent green, but later we can take it out by the raft and sprinkle it over as much snow.  This dye, along with the yellow raft, will make it easier to see us when they come back.”

“Cool!”  David replied as he took the containers and made his way to the fire.