MOUNTAIN AND DESERT SURVIVAL

the man of air rescue service knew just about where he went down and within the first day they found his parachute raft and survival kit but they didn't find him darkness interrupted the search and the next day it took a ground search to catch up with him he had the intelligence and the physical coordination to become a pilot and he'd had the strength to walk some 12 miles from where he dropped in by parachute the Air Force had put hundreds of thousands of dollars into his training and even as they found him he had enough survival equipment in his pockets and on his body to have survived for a month but he was dead if he hadn't left his survival kit he'd have made it hands-down no problems but he'd taken only a chute with him he'd have made it why didn't he take it with him what killed him now we can only guess but it's an educated guess shock exhaustion dehydration cold panic if this were the case of only one man we'd say he just followed up and write it off - tough luck but this is not an isolated case he has entirely too much company there are many examples of men who after a safe landing have not survived some died only because they didn't wear proper clothing for the area over which the flight boot had been planned some because they simply walked away from their equipment or didn't know how to use it some because they misjudged distances or temperatures for both some because they overestimated their physical condition and some because they panicked [Music] now what does it take to succeed in a survival situation what happens what does it feel like when I started to come to I didn't know what had happened I'd made a lucky landing in bad country and I didn't appreciate it I didn't feel hurt yet I didn't feel alive everything was dreamlike now I know I wasn't shot but when you're in shock you can't always tell up from down I couldn't tell you how long I'd been there but my senses were coming back slowly I began to remember what had happened I remembered the flame out in the objection what a kick in the pants that had been I was sure I'd bought the farm but here I was beginning to remember again beginning to feel again and then something inside me began to fight back I wish I could tell you I was being smart but I wasn't I was in pure panic something I'd never experienced before all I can remember is I had to get out of there cut myself loose hurry run run and run [Music] [Applause] don't ever drink water without boiling it or purifying okay but I didn't know what I was doing I just had to have it but it was that water that finally stopped me lying down there with a big drink of water in my stomach I began to come out of shock I was still shaking I was filled with a strange kind of fear and hopelessness but I was beginning to think I began to realize that I was acting like a fool killing myself and that my only chance now was to use my cotton peg and brain I didn't think I could make it back up there and yet I knew them that I wouldn't survive without that shoe if I had it shelter along with this water I'd get through the night get on the ball Chum I said go get it [Music] the only reason I found the raft and shoot was because of their bright colors but I couldn't find the survival kit anyplace I could barely remember cutting myself free of the lanyard but why couldn't I find the kit when the panic buttons all the way and I guess you can get pretty stupid somebody in the airforce has thought all this through before me there was a minimum survival kit and knife sewed into the parachute harness you can't lose that kit this second kit has only the barest necessities but right then I wouldn't have sold it for $1000 the kits aluminum foil bag contains fish hooks and safety pins matches purification tablets compass three chunks of firestarter band-aids instructions [Music] water bag and another knife it was like inheriting of fortune but I had even more than that a few matches of my own and a half a pack of cigarettes [Music] money I couldn't spend my own switchblade knife [Music] gloves shoot helmet and raft that raft seemed a foolish thing to have in the mountains but as yet I hadn't learned to appreciate it I didn't have any plan that first evening I just did first things first and only what I could do I didn't want to burn up the forest with me in it I just wanted to get warm and have a light in the night so I picked a fairly open place and cleared a fire circle to make the fire I gathered pine needles for tender [ __ ] wood for kindling and the logs for fuel [Music] before I built that fire I checked the kids fire starter material there were only three little chunks of it put a match to it and it burned I figured that if I cut each chunk in half I'd have twice as much of the stuff to use but the smaller a chunk I used the more careful I'd have to plan my fire [Music] I made sure everything was ready before I put the half chunk of fire start again I knew now that one match was about as valuable a thing as I could ever own and when I was ready to strike that one I was almost scared ready get set go even a little fire can do a lot for you you're not quite so alone not quite so cold it helps you to believe in yourself again and you begin hoping again even so I just about had it there wasn't anything to eat nothing to boil water and and nothing to put it in if I did boil it but at least there was water [Music] [Music] this time however I filled the water bag and dropped the water purification tell him to it that water bag was delicate and hard to handle and yet it was the only container I had of any sort [Music] till it purify and make it last I put it in my helmet and tie to clothes with a piece of nylon cord [Music] even when the fire had build up high I knew it wasn't much of a signal a rescue plane would have to fly right over the top of this Gorge to see it at all I then prepared the chute for sleeping first cutting off the chute suspension lines leaving about two feet of cord attached to it for time [Music] the rest of the suspension lines I placed out of the way for future use [Music] I then laid the chute into kind of a sleeping bag I was so whipped I thought I could just roll in the chute and sleep [Music] but the mountains are made of rocks not only big ones but little ones hard cold sharp and wet [Music] I looked at that raft again it didn't look like a seagoing bathtub anymore it looked like an air mattress [Music] I filled it about half full of air I then turned it upside down and put my chute on top of it [Music] after taking off my G suit I crawled into my homemade sack boy what a difference [Music] the second day I got up and packed to move out [Music] I drank the last of my water because I couldn't carry it in my helmet I saved the water bag for future use I still felt cold and bruised in the wrong places I also had a sharp stomach cramp that may have come from that drink of water I had taken from the creek I wasn't going to drink any more water without purifying it but maybe it was too late on the other hand I was rested enough to get going I had to get out of that gorge to an area where somebody could see me [Music] if I travel downstream I thought I'd find a place that was flat and open enough to put out some good large signals [Music] but those mountains are big and I kept pushing it until I thought I'd pop it took almost three hours of walking before I selected an area for my camp near a stream [Music] I haven't heard an airplane at any time but I knew they'd be looking for me and a search plane might come by at any time the first thing I decided was to make a signal it could be seen from the air the easiest signal to get out as the chute after tying the apex of the chute to a tree I cut the chute in half 1/2 for a signal and the other half for a shelter and sleeping bag [Music] with that shootout I felt a lot better it was a fine signal but it wasn't enough I had to have signal fires three of them in a triangle about fifty yards apart I was rid of the cramps for the time being anyhow I was weak and hungrier than I'd ever been I wanted a tree I could rig a shelter from later I'd build my campfire first and I'd build it by those trees that first fire could do a lot for me it was a signal by itself and if I kept it going I'd be able to light the three signal fires I had built in the open field but exactly how would I like those piles of dry brush for a signal fire I made three torches of dry pine needles I leave one by my campfire and the other two by the two nearest brush piles if I heard a plane I light the torch by the campfire and run it out to the nearest signal fire in the meadow one torch for each fire I was so hungry now my stomach ached if I'd found berries or edible plants I'd have given them the taste test but I found nothing I could set snares on the rabbit runs in that brush but this was going to take time in my appetite was getting clear out of hand so I decided to fish I made a fishing line from the inner core of the suspension lines the core lines were the thing tough and plenty long enough for a fish line I had three fish hooks to try my luck within that river for lures I found a worm for one hook I folded a little piece of aluminum foil from a survival kit in the shape of a minnow for the second and I used a small piece of white parachute cloth for the third [Music] I set three fishing poles on the banks of the stream each some distance apart I'd seen minnows in the shallows minnows are food but how do you catch him that little parachute book sowed into a pocket of that chute pack is the Book of the Month believe me it has all the know-how you need to make things out of a parachute signals shelters or nets name it it's there and I needed a hand net [Music] I had lots of willow with which to make a ring I had a needle I had core line for thread and I used a piece of the shoot for the net it wasn't the best net you ever saw but I had a feeling it was going to feed me [Music] and it finally did they don't look like much they looked as good as a turkey dinner to me and I could use a few for fish bait though that was going to eat were so small I rigged up a green scissor stick to cook them on cooking they smell wonderful I ate them whole and they were good eating they did something else for me too they gave me the knowledge that one way or another I could survive I then decided to check my fishing lines all of a sudden I had a bite [Music] he wasn't any monster but he was all mine I wrapped him in that small piece of aluminum foil from the survival kit and put him in the coals of the fire to bake [Music] the menos in the little trout were fine but they weren't enough and I spent part of the afternoon of the second day placing snares on any small game trail I could find I made them out of inner cord dirty them to make them blend in with the bushes arranged pine needles and sticks to make the animals pass through them I put them all over the place three or four on every one of five trails that's a lot of snares I could see myself cleaning cooking and eating a dozen rabbits for breakfast yes I was still hungry I did a lot of other things that afternoon for one thing I built a simplest shelter I could a para tent it tells you how on that little parachute book of course I didn't have an axe to cut poles so I rigged it on suspension lines using rocks as buttons to tie it down but it wasn't enough rain would go right through that tent what could I do about it I could build another about 18 inches above it and then it would really shed rain I wanted a sleeping bag - better than the kind I'd made last night I folded the parachute by panels as shown in the book then sewed the seams so it wouldn't pull loose finally I tied the shoot in a knot at the smaller end and the parachute book had said to get out another signal as suggested I stomped out a double L in the open field then I placed brush in the same double L which would mean to an airplane Here I am and I'm okay that brush really made the signal stand out I don't mind telling you when I finish stopping out the outline and piling all that brush together I just about had it for the day the Sun was getting lower and it was getting cold again I was hungry and bushed really bushed but I was lucky earlier that day I'd eaten six minnows and for dinner I had the small baked trout I'd have to sleep with one ear cocked for the sound of airplanes I'd have to get up a couple of times and feed the fire but mostly I could sleep now and I was strangely pleased with how well I was surviving the morning of the third day I was feeling alright but hungry from all those snares I had said I got only one rabbit I didn't have enough experience to know whether I was a lousy trapper or just lucky the rabbit was going to be my first good meal I could have flat skinned him and used the hide for a number of things such as mending clothes or I could have cased skinned him by pulling the hide off over his head I could have made warm gloves and shoes out of him that way but I just feel skinned him and saved the inn trolls for fish bait I didn't need to hide just now I hope that air rescue would find me soon one thing I wasn't going to do was wait to broil a whole rabbit I cut the meat into thin slices so that I could quickly cook it on a green stick that way I could start eating almost right away and broil the rest later my signals were out my fires were ready I was rested and I was eating high on the rabbit now I really knew something I knew that one way or another I could survive for a month longer if I had to I thought back to that first moment of shock and panic if only I hadn't wandered off I'd still have my large survival kit if only I'd had the sense to sit down then think get hold of myself it would have been a lot easier I was just lucky to be okay at just that moment when I understood all this when I wasn't spooked anymore I heard that eggbeater even in the stillness of those mountains it was only a tiny sound but it was all I needed I did everything just as I planned it torches fire and green stuff I kept saying to myself easy does it one way or another you can live off these mountains for a month even when the smoke was really building up I couldn't hear or see an airplane of any sort then suddenly he was there I saw him and heard him he looked like a mosquito but he was coming my way he was coming to investigate that smoke there's not a great deal of difference between this man who's alive and this one who's dead the only difference is that this man did not stop to think and this one finally did this man actually stopped he sat down and by doing that he recovered enough from his first shock at the start of thinking if you remember only one thing in a survival situation remembered this your brain is the finest survival kit you'll ever have [Music] [Applause]