Unlike some of the other war stories and tall tales that you have seen on this site this one is true. This happened to yours truly back around 1983 and hasn’t been told to many people.
While I was in the army my unit was tasked to support the testing of the then new MLRS (multiple launch rocket system.) This testing took place in the desert corners of southwest Texas and southeastern New Mexico. One night while we were in the field I was ordered to drive down the road and assist another unit. My boss didn’t know an exact location for them but knew that they were on a certain dirt trail which he showed me on the map. Meanwhile since we all had to be out of the desert by the next morning, I was to just go back to the base camp after I had finished helping them which was down the same trail 25 miles and hang a right for 5 or so more miles. Well as fate would have it they were not in the place when we got there. (I believe that the reason that my boss couldn’t get in touch with them is because they had skinned out early.) Also as fate would have it the jeep broke down and we didn’t have a radio to call for help. The only thing that I could think of was to walk back to base camp so I started walking, and I walked, and walked, and walked. I walked all night with a pack of coyotes following me. I probably would be still walking if not for some MP’s who just (as fate would have it) happened to be on a field exercise and just happened to be on the same trail. What I found out is that the trail had shifted for miles since the map had been drawn up. I would have ended up walking 40 to 45 miles if they had not found me. This is just one of many memories that I have of my time in the military and I’m sure that you have many memories also. This is the reason that the military ring is a good instrument to use to tell your story of service.
Related posts:
