L.E.A.D. For those who don't know, was a class taken as part of The Way Corps cirriculum. LEAD the acronym stands for Leadership, Education, Adventure, and Direction. It was a program designed to be like "Outward Bound," a popular Christian based outdoors adventure program which challenged people to stretch their physical limits and have a singularly personal experience with God in a nature setting. The goal was to enhance a personal relationship with Christ.
The LEAD Outdoor Academy was TWI's answer to the same. The LEAD Staff was located in Tinnie, New Mexico and made up of people who had skills interest and training in "outdoor stuff" like camping, survival skills, rock climbing, etc. Donnie Smith, Rev. Donnie Smith was the Corps Coordinator at LEAD, a real Grizzly Adams lookin' kinda guy. I liked him, he was always cool to me & others whenever I saw him. The LEAD Home was a Corps Training location, the 5th of five that the Corps would rotate to, especially during year four, the final year.
LEAD 104 was, as the title suggests, the 104th group to, as we used to say, "go LEAD." The program was basically 10 days; a day & 1/2 to get there seven days in the wilderness and a day & 1/2 to get back to the campus.
36hrs and rides to get there was sort like a mantra that Dave B. one of the WCC's at Emporia would use to help motivate us to hitchhike the miles from Emporia, KS to Tinne, NM. The program "required" that we hitchhike in teams of two or three on a predetermined route from campus to campus. The groups were either one guy & a gal or two gals & a guy. They told us for "safety purposes" their would always be a guy with every girl. We were given the 36 hours to get to the pickup spot in Tinnie, a $10 bill for each person (so as to not be stopped by police as a vagrant) and a sack lunch which had "enough" food for the 36hrs.
LEAD was "an adventure in believing," we were told as we were to hitchhike accross the country in a certain amount of time and come back with the $10. If you didn't make it to Tinnie in the specified time the LEAD staff was instructed to feed you and send you right back to the campus you came from.
The trip itself was quite an extreme experience in and of itself and an interesting story. Maybe later.
The accident happened when we were on our way AFTER the LEAD experience to be dropped off for the hitchhike "home" to the campus.
Be patient,George....HCW is probably posting in shorter increments so people like me with Adult Attention Deficit Disorder don't space out in mid-post and click on a new topic....
LEAD 104 was the first group to go out of Emporia that year, the 11th Corps graduating year and 13th Corps first in-residence year.
My journal reads:
October 5/82
I'm going LEAD! Again! I'm blessed to be going so soon, in the pacesetting group - Now is the time for me to really break through...
The installation has happened (August '82) I was one of only three full time photographers covering the events. Frank Cardullo was the fourth. It was great working with those guys... I felt like "less than the least" of photographers yet there I was, right up front with some of the best. Frank, David Savatteri, Bill Pancoast and myself. Seems like yesterday, we were shooting one of the biggest events in ministry history, now here I am about to go LEAD.
----------------------------------
I had spent about 35hrs & 10 min on the road with my partner Esther Cabrerra. Ester is a cute Colombian born little 13th Corps girl who, on our trip was hungry, like ALL of the time and constantly had to go to the bathroom! Drove me a little bit crazy but overall we had a goof trip. I liked Esther, she was cool. We were among the last ones to get there though, whew! We made it.
After we all got there we had our first meeting with Donnie and the staff that would be taking us out on the session. This time Donnie's younger brother Kevin was leading the session but Donnie ran the opening meeting.
Donnie told us that we were a "special" group. While we were thinking something like Yeah! Pacesetters, first out of the blocks & crap like that Donnie said, "... but not for the reasons you're probably thinking...." He went on to tell us how he was told were were all "hand-picked" for this session. Reason being that the line on all of us was that we were all "recommended" that we probably shouldn't have been allowed back in residence after our interim year. The 13th among us were considered to be "weaker."
What had been a happy, jubilant group of tired giddy people turned into a really serious, somber, even angry bunch. Donnie kept talking, sayinghow he knew quite a few of us personally and couldn't see why any of those he knew were considered "weak."
Continuing on he said that this crap didn't surprise him cause it happened a lot. He said he was told to challenge us & see who would "break." "I'm gonna challenge you all right, but not to break you. You gonna show 'em how LEAD 104 is not just a bunch of misfits, or "weak." We'll show them how you are among the BEST the 11th & 13th have to offer. He said how this dang ....ed him off.
Because of that he came up with a theme cheer for us. We sat around the campfire circle and with flames flickering lighting our faces he said. "Repeat after me....
quote:My arms and my legs are like steel,
My hands are like vice grips,
My feet are like hinds feet,
And my mind is like Christ's.
AND.
I can do ALL things!
LEAD 104!!!!
GRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!
He had us say it over and over, WITH ENTHUSIASM! Emphasize THESE words, say it LOUDER! GROWL like you MEAN it!!! He had us going like a foobal team before they take the field. At first I was sayin' to myself.
"I'm not sayin' that. Sounds pretty stupid to me." He kept saying stuff like, "You gonna let them say you're weak? YOU'RE not WEAK. you're not the WORST, you're the best!" Show 'em Show 'em NOW! LOUDER! Make the trees shake!"
I guess we showed 'em. We had a really great session. We were LOUD, rowdy, got in trouble together, excelled in some stuff together. Rooted like crazy for small girls (like Rochelle) to get up some crazy mad climbs.
Donnie said they had to do experimental stuff on us like adding extra days, hiking longer than they ever did, beign the first session ever to go on the opposite side of the mountain, climb climbs the staff had not even rated yet, etc. We hiked to the summit of Mt. Sunset from the opposite side of the mountain in full packs, stuff like that. We got to name the climbs in honor of our being the first LEAD group to climb them.
During the session whenever we'd say LEAD 104 someone would say "GROWL when you say that mister!" Then we'd say our theme like the three stooges did the "Niagra Falls" thing. We had more fun than a barrel of Corps monkeys.
I always hated how TWI always had to do "the same thing only different."
JUST BECAUSE Outward Bound and other similar programs called the end of their sessions time to reflect on the experience "solo's" LCM said we HAD to call our's "DUO's."
We're not out there solo, its a DUO cause its you AND God, you're not alone! I was like "shut UP Craig. That's stupid, no matter how you look at it you are ALONE, solo with God...idiot."
At any rate Kevin had told us that our LEAD evaluations would be longer during OUR Duo's than usual because they were instructed to discuss this BS w/ us concerning our future w/The Corps. The did the evals in alphabetical order, I was last. Kevin came by and asked me, since they already knew me, etc., if it was OK w/ me, (since the evals were going even longer than expected) that we could do my eval in the truck on the way to be dropped of tomorrow.
It turned out that way. My eval wasn't done & we had packed up to leave. We headed out for the road in two trucks. Each truck had about 15 people in it. Our truck was a big Ford Pickup. We were pulling a trailer that the LEAD staff had built out of wood framing and aluminum siding. It was about the size of a small U-Haul and had all of the luggage, back-packs & sack lunches for the 30 of us in LEAD 104.
Grrrrr.....
We loaded 13 people in the bed of the pickup. Kevin & I sat up front and aonther girl, sat on my lap as we rode away. When we got to a doing the evaluation Kevin asked the girl if she could hop in the back w/the other folks. The other truck followed behind us as we went down the road again.
Yesterday while we were driving toward Tinnie to be let out for the trip home disaster struck.
Kevin & I were in the cab of the white pickup riding along at highway speeds going over my LEAD evealuation. Kevin was driving and he was holding the eval form across the steering wheel with his hands at 3'oclock and 9'oclock, so he could read it. As he looked up & down at the road & then at the form asking questions we both noticed that he was having a little trouble keeping the truck going straight down the road.
The wind seemed to pick up & it was a gusting crosswind. I kinda hesitated to answer the questions and at one point we both sorta looked at each other like... "This is pretty dangerous." I remember looking down at the seat between us as Kevin took the form and placed it down. The instant he looked away from the road the truck started heading off the road onto the right shoulder.
Kevin started to take corrective action. (He pulled the truck to the right until all the wheels on the right side of the truck were in the gravel shoulder, including the trailer. We were bouncing but not ot badly.) Then we started to lose it. When he turned to the left to get the truck back all the way on the road the truck bounced violently.
It seemed like when the trailer came back up onto the road it bounced up and to the left pulling the rear of the truck fishtailing it to the left with it. Kevin did a counter-steer to the left to correct the skid without hitting the brakes. We were still going about 50mph at this point.
Then the truck whipped violently fishtailing now to the right. I remember thinking how rough it was but I never though we would CRASH!!! Right into a ditch on the opposite (left) side of the road. We drove right off the left side of the road into what had been open countryside. When I looked up out the windshield, I saw the ditch approaching then realized we were going to have a BAD accident.
Everything was like slow motion in the movies. We smashed into the ditch and Kevin & I both flew foreward shattering the windshield with our heads upon impact. I remember growling "NNOOOOOOO GGGGOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD!!!!!" as glass splashed everwhere hitting me in my face, going in my mouth, ears, everywhere; never squeezed my eyes shut so tight in my life.
Slow motion banging, that ugly "car chrash!" sound, helplessly bouncing like a rag doll, screams, shouting in a slow motion fade to black.
My mind fades up from black to a chorus of moans and crying and shouting. I looked over at Kevin; he was bleeding from his head and hands. I turned to my right and started yanking on the door to get out. Things were back to normal speed now.
"open the door! OPEN the DOOR!" Kevin yelled to someone I couldn't see. My door was trapped by the ditch. We were actually tipped onto the right side of the truck and it was hanging, stuck in the ditch like you'd stick a knife in the ground. All I could see out my window was ground and a small strip of daylight at the top. The cab of the truck was so severly smashed, we couldn't get out the front or the back windows.
Open the window! Another voice from the outside. I though maybe we were trapped but Kevin cranked down his window and we scampered out.
I followed Kevin an went in the opposite direction as he. The first person I saw was Rochel*e Wajhnb##g (;)--> 'Wolf). She had cuts in her head and he har sheared away and blood flowing down her face and hands as she sat, moaning and rocking, moaning and rocking holding her hands on her head.
There was moaning from every direction. I wheeled around and Looked right into Stephen Spielb@rgs bloody face. Then I froze and slowly panned the whole scene. My heart wanted to weep and sob SOOOO badly! Thought of personal guilt FLOODED my mind. There was NO time....No time for that.
I bounded around the back of the truck and began to check injuries. There were people from the other truck pulling others out of the bed who were stuffed and stacked on top of each other in the corner up against the back of the cab. I looked down into the bed, there was Jo Phe!ffer stuufed in to the corner. Still I couldn't BELIEVE this was HAPPENING.
Nancy was to my left with crying with blood all over her face, her teeth were bashed in so far you could hardly see them, looked like they were gone. AGAIN my mind wanted to freak.
and hooked under Jo's arms. Pulling I began yelling for help to get her out and then went to check Na^cy. Then I went to Don Juan; he was moaning loudly and bleeding from his hand and face. He cried out, "Helllp!" and I took his hand saying,
"I'm here bro, just breathe, slow & deep. Breathe, slow & deep, Don't try to move..."
Don Juan was in a LOT of pain, his hip was somewhat contorted and he said his left shoulder was out of joint. While comforting him again, Isurveyed the scene. It was gruesome. There were bleeding people and small puddles of blood scattered all around me. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle and moaning and crying I sorta faded into myself. The noise and movements all became muffled and slow motion again and I almost broke and wept - - again.
Just then Steve said, "Don't worry. I'm not as bad as I look." he - looked - HORRIBLE. His face was streaked with blood like something out of a cheap horror movie. Thoughts of the BLOOD, broken bones, the twisted remains of the truck and shattered trailer, luggage, backpacks, and those ever present SACK LUNCHES(damn those things) converged on me and I felt my sanity slipping away. Steve's remark kinda made me laugh. He looked REALLY bad but he had this stupid SMILE on his face! The laughing snapped me back to reality.
I turned my attention back to Don Juan. "Squeeze my hand, man." I told him to take his mind off the pain. He pleaded not to be moved, he thought he was sliding down the hill even though he was laying still. I did my best to distract him and focus his mind to keep him stable.
By now several more paramedic busses had arrived. I flagged some over and they strapped Don Juan on a body board to move him. I got out of their way and went around from person to person checking the extent of injuries, looking for broken bones concussions & the like.
I had SCREAMED at paramedics, the first ones to arrive to take Rochelle. There had been so much activity. 13 people in various states of injury, so much running around that the first paramedic unit to leave w/ Rochelle in it had kinda wrecked into the second LEAD truck pulling out. They just powered past it and zoomed away full lights & sirens.
When I was checking Rochelle, she was holding her hands on her head, rocking & crying. "Rochelle, move your hands out of the way, I HAVE to check your head." I told her.
"Nooooooo." she said, "Ohhhh Nooooo!" She was always sooo stubborn.
"ROCHELLE - - LET me SEE your HEAD!" I said a wee bit sternly. I have to check so I can tell the paramedics who's hurt the worst. Come on honey, let me see it. This is ME, let me see it ok?"
She nodded. and I began to gently move her hands away. The skin on her head moved with her hands. I saw what I thought was her skull inside the slice. "WHAT hit you? I said. She pointed and said I think that thing hit me." It was a piece of the aluminum siding laying near her with some blood on it. That thing had literally scalped her about half of the top of her head, she was holding it together with her hands.
I SCREAMED. "MEEDDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIICCCCC! MEDIC! GET a medic OVER HERE - - - NOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!"
Paramedics started carting people off into the ambulances then Donnie and people from the LEAD lodge arrived. (This was pre cellphone days.)
After a short while we got everybody everybody into ambulances and cleared most of the luggage away then Donnie told us that could walk to go back to the lEAD lodge. I went back to the other truck to get all belongingd, etc. then grabbed some sack suppers & left in the truck.
==============================
Of the 16 people in the truck, 14 were riding in the pickup bed. They were having fun cracking jokes & stuff. Someone had just told the punchline of a joke when he hit the ravine. They had just burst into laughter moments before the truck hit the solid wall of earth and went from about 45-50 mph to zero in an instant. The truck went downward, twisting to its left while tipping foreward.
This made some people scrunch together in the right front corner of the pickup bed.
The trailer flipped up like a slingshot. Up over and foreward. Some people were catapaulted out of the truck, those that weren't scrunched. The trailer missed EVERYONE and hit the back of the cab, exploding on impact.
There were people, luggage, backpacks & sack suppers splashed over the area. Fractions of seconds was the difference that saved MANY lives. One guy had actually been thrown from the truck, flipped over in mid air, hit the ground in a foreward roll position and landed on his feet! Some had a few cuts & scratches. others broken bones. We felt it was miraculous that the trailer didn't impact on snybody. Pieces of it cut people flying by them.
Hi HCW, I don't mean to derail this thread, but I was just wondering if you had heard about 2 other incidents, one where some wacko guys came into the camp with guns and threatened to kill some of the lead people and another one where some Lead people were out on some road and their vehicle went over a cliff and they never made it. One of my old twig co-ordinators and his wife who helped to run LEAD relayed this to me many years ago so the details are rather sketchy.
A corps man hitchhiking to LEAD was struck by a vehicle and killed. Comment I heard was: "he fell asleep at the switch". That is all they said. Damn them.
While hitching to LEAD a 10 corps woman was abducted at a truck stop and beaten and raped. She escaped alive. Never returned to Emporia.. At least J Lynn communicated concern for her and her whereabouts.
There were MANY deaths by accidents, murder and suicide very few have heard about..
ie: A young WOW girl was murdered in NJ
Some posters here have knowledge of these terrible incidents and more. Just breaks my heart that I thought all was Good and Kind in twi.
I was in the thirteenth and two good friends of mine were involved - a guy named Wes and a girl named Dawn. I heard only the official certified sanitized version which always included phrases like "not sharp" and "out of fellowship" and "spiritually weak".
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HCW
As far as standing up, talking back. People did that a lot, especially after POP. People got "mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore!" Of my personal pet peeves was the whole money thing. T
HAPe4me
I never participated in it, but I always thought it sounded like "Outward Bound", which has been measurably more successful in achieving it's participant's goals.
So_crates
Yes, but then there's the counter teaching: If you obey the MOG, God will bless you. So what do you do when the MOG orders you to act recklessly? Rhetorical question. SoCrates
HCW
For Rochelle.
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HCW
With tears. Tears shed for every moment of pain all have suffered related to this day.
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HCW
L.E.A.D 104
L.E.A.D. For those who don't know, was a class taken as part of The Way Corps cirriculum. LEAD the acronym stands for Leadership, Education, Adventure, and Direction. It was a program designed to be like "Outward Bound," a popular Christian based outdoors adventure program which challenged people to stretch their physical limits and have a singularly personal experience with God in a nature setting. The goal was to enhance a personal relationship with Christ.
The LEAD Outdoor Academy was TWI's answer to the same. The LEAD Staff was located in Tinnie, New Mexico and made up of people who had skills interest and training in "outdoor stuff" like camping, survival skills, rock climbing, etc. Donnie Smith, Rev. Donnie Smith was the Corps Coordinator at LEAD, a real Grizzly Adams lookin' kinda guy. I liked him, he was always cool to me & others whenever I saw him. The LEAD Home was a Corps Training location, the 5th of five that the Corps would rotate to, especially during year four, the final year.
LEAD 104 was, as the title suggests, the 104th group to, as we used to say, "go LEAD." The program was basically 10 days; a day & 1/2 to get there seven days in the wilderness and a day & 1/2 to get back to the campus.
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HCW
"Thirty six hours and rides to get there."
36hrs and rides to get there was sort like a mantra that Dave B. one of the WCC's at Emporia would use to help motivate us to hitchhike the miles from Emporia, KS to Tinne, NM. The program "required" that we hitchhike in teams of two or three on a predetermined route from campus to campus. The groups were either one guy & a gal or two gals & a guy. They told us for "safety purposes" their would always be a guy with every girl. We were given the 36 hours to get to the pickup spot in Tinnie, a $10 bill for each person (so as to not be stopped by police as a vagrant) and a sack lunch which had "enough" food for the 36hrs.
LEAD was "an adventure in believing," we were told as we were to hitchhike accross the country in a certain amount of time and come back with the $10. If you didn't make it to Tinnie in the specified time the LEAD staff was instructed to feed you and send you right back to the campus you came from.
The trip itself was quite an extreme experience in and of itself and an interesting story. Maybe later.
The accident happened when we were on our way AFTER the LEAD experience to be dropped off for the hitchhike "home" to the campus.
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George Aar
Gawd, how many installments are there going to be in this serial?
Could you just tell us what happened, or does it have to be drawn out for dramatic effect?
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simonzelotes
Be patient,George....HCW is probably posting in shorter increments so people like me with Adult Attention Deficit Disorder don't space out in mid-post and click on a new topic....
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HCW
Grrrrr.....
LEAD 104 was the first group to go out of Emporia that year, the 11th Corps graduating year and 13th Corps first in-residence year.
My journal reads:
October 5/82
I'm going LEAD! Again! I'm blessed to be going so soon, in the pacesetting group - Now is the time for me to really break through...
The installation has happened (August '82) I was one of only three full time photographers covering the events. Frank Cardullo was the fourth. It was great working with those guys... I felt like "less than the least" of photographers yet there I was, right up front with some of the best. Frank, David Savatteri, Bill Pancoast and myself. Seems like yesterday, we were shooting one of the biggest events in ministry history, now here I am about to go LEAD.
----------------------------------
I had spent about 35hrs & 10 min on the road with my partner Esther Cabrerra. Ester is a cute Colombian born little 13th Corps girl who, on our trip was hungry, like ALL of the time and constantly had to go to the bathroom! Drove me a little bit crazy but overall we had a goof trip. I liked Esther, she was cool. We were among the last ones to get there though, whew! We made it.
After we all got there we had our first meeting with Donnie and the staff that would be taking us out on the session. This time Donnie's younger brother Kevin was leading the session but Donnie ran the opening meeting.
Donnie told us that we were a "special" group. While we were thinking something like Yeah! Pacesetters, first out of the blocks & crap like that Donnie said, "... but not for the reasons you're probably thinking...." He went on to tell us how he was told were were all "hand-picked" for this session. Reason being that the line on all of us was that we were all "recommended" that we probably shouldn't have been allowed back in residence after our interim year. The 13th among us were considered to be "weaker."
What had been a happy, jubilant group of tired giddy people turned into a really serious, somber, even angry bunch. Donnie kept talking, sayinghow he knew quite a few of us personally and couldn't see why any of those he knew were considered "weak."
Continuing on he said that this crap didn't surprise him cause it happened a lot. He said he was told to challenge us & see who would "break." "I'm gonna challenge you all right, but not to break you. You gonna show 'em how LEAD 104 is not just a bunch of misfits, or "weak." We'll show them how you are among the BEST the 11th & 13th have to offer. He said how this dang ....ed him off.
Because of that he came up with a theme cheer for us. We sat around the campfire circle and with flames flickering lighting our faces he said. "Repeat after me....
He had us say it over and over, WITH ENTHUSIASM! Emphasize THESE words, say it LOUDER! GROWL like you MEAN it!!! He had us going like a foobal team before they take the field. At first I was sayin' to myself.
"I'm not sayin' that. Sounds pretty stupid to me." He kept saying stuff like, "You gonna let them say you're weak? YOU'RE not WEAK. you're not the WORST, you're the best!" Show 'em Show 'em NOW! LOUDER! Make the trees shake!"
I guess we showed 'em. We had a really great session. We were LOUD, rowdy, got in trouble together, excelled in some stuff together. Rooted like crazy for small girls (like Rochelle) to get up some crazy mad climbs.
Donnie said they had to do experimental stuff on us like adding extra days, hiking longer than they ever did, beign the first session ever to go on the opposite side of the mountain, climb climbs the staff had not even rated yet, etc. We hiked to the summit of Mt. Sunset from the opposite side of the mountain in full packs, stuff like that. We got to name the climbs in honor of our being the first LEAD group to climb them.
During the session whenever we'd say LEAD 104 someone would say "GROWL when you say that mister!" Then we'd say our theme like the three stooges did the "Niagra Falls" thing. We had more fun than a barrel of Corps monkeys.
GRRRRRRRRR........
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HCW
Its not for drama Geo.
This stuff relates to what happened...
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George Aar
Fine, but leave out the parts that start "It was a dark and stormy night!" or "There I was, flat on my back!", O.K.?
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HCW
DUO time...
I always hated how TWI always had to do "the same thing only different."
JUST BECAUSE Outward Bound and other similar programs called the end of their sessions time to reflect on the experience "solo's" LCM said we HAD to call our's "DUO's."
We're not out there solo, its a DUO cause its you AND God, you're not alone! I was like "shut UP Craig. That's stupid, no matter how you look at it you are ALONE, solo with God...idiot."
At any rate Kevin had told us that our LEAD evaluations would be longer during OUR Duo's than usual because they were instructed to discuss this BS w/ us concerning our future w/The Corps. The did the evals in alphabetical order, I was last. Kevin came by and asked me, since they already knew me, etc., if it was OK w/ me, (since the evals were going even longer than expected) that we could do my eval in the truck on the way to be dropped of tomorrow.
It turned out that way. My eval wasn't done & we had packed up to leave. We headed out for the road in two trucks. Each truck had about 15 people in it. Our truck was a big Ford Pickup. We were pulling a trailer that the LEAD staff had built out of wood framing and aluminum siding. It was about the size of a small U-Haul and had all of the luggage, back-packs & sack lunches for the 30 of us in LEAD 104.
Grrrrr.....
We loaded 13 people in the bed of the pickup. Kevin & I sat up front and aonther girl, sat on my lap as we rode away. When we got to a doing the evaluation Kevin asked the girl if she could hop in the back w/the other folks. The other truck followed behind us as we went down the road again.
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HCW
When you tell your story tell it the way you want George.
Until then SHUT UP about telling me how to tell mine.
I am paying RESPECT to a girl who LOST HER LIFE behind this. What's a few extra minutes of YOUR's worth compared to that.
Please. Pull you pants up the moon is showing on your "dark and stormy foot."
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WordWolf
George,
just scroll down if you don't like it.
Let him tell his story in his own words.
SOME of us would like to hear the details.
(Although I'd prefer a few names to have at least one character switched with
an "x" to prevent search engines from finding this.)
It's not like he's making a sales-pitch or something.
It's a bit like a memento mori. Give it space.
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HCW
What Happened???
My journal reads:
Yesterday while we were driving toward Tinnie to be let out for the trip home disaster struck.
Kevin & I were in the cab of the white pickup riding along at highway speeds going over my LEAD evealuation. Kevin was driving and he was holding the eval form across the steering wheel with his hands at 3'oclock and 9'oclock, so he could read it. As he looked up & down at the road & then at the form asking questions we both noticed that he was having a little trouble keeping the truck going straight down the road.
The wind seemed to pick up & it was a gusting crosswind. I kinda hesitated to answer the questions and at one point we both sorta looked at each other like... "This is pretty dangerous." I remember looking down at the seat between us as Kevin took the form and placed it down. The instant he looked away from the road the truck started heading off the road onto the right shoulder.
Kevin started to take corrective action. (He pulled the truck to the right until all the wheels on the right side of the truck were in the gravel shoulder, including the trailer. We were bouncing but not ot badly.) Then we started to lose it. When he turned to the left to get the truck back all the way on the road the truck bounced violently.
It seemed like when the trailer came back up onto the road it bounced up and to the left pulling the rear of the truck fishtailing it to the left with it. Kevin did a counter-steer to the left to correct the skid without hitting the brakes. We were still going about 50mph at this point.
Then the truck whipped violently fishtailing now to the right. I remember thinking how rough it was but I never though we would CRASH!!! Right into a ditch on the opposite (left) side of the road. We drove right off the left side of the road into what had been open countryside. When I looked up out the windshield, I saw the ditch approaching then realized we were going to have a BAD accident.
Everything was like slow motion in the movies. We smashed into the ditch and Kevin & I both flew foreward shattering the windshield with our heads upon impact. I remember growling "NNOOOOOOO GGGGOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDD!!!!!" as glass splashed everwhere hitting me in my face, going in my mouth, ears, everywhere; never squeezed my eyes shut so tight in my life.
Slow motion banging, that ugly "car chrash!" sound, helplessly bouncing like a rag doll, screams, shouting in a slow motion fade to black.
My mind fades up from black to a chorus of moans and crying and shouting. I looked over at Kevin; he was bleeding from his head and hands. I turned to my right and started yanking on the door to get out. Things were back to normal speed now.
"open the door! OPEN the DOOR!" Kevin yelled to someone I couldn't see. My door was trapped by the ditch. We were actually tipped onto the right side of the truck and it was hanging, stuck in the ditch like you'd stick a knife in the ground. All I could see out my window was ground and a small strip of daylight at the top. The cab of the truck was so severly smashed, we couldn't get out the front or the back windows.
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HCW
Open the Window!
Open the window! Another voice from the outside. I though maybe we were trapped but Kevin cranked down his window and we scampered out.
I followed Kevin an went in the opposite direction as he. The first person I saw was Rochel*e Wajhnb##g (
;)--> 'Wolf). She had cuts in her head and he har sheared away and blood flowing down her face and hands as she sat, moaning and rocking, moaning and rocking holding her hands on her head.
There was moaning from every direction. I wheeled around and Looked right into Stephen Spielb@rgs bloody face. Then I froze and slowly panned the whole scene. My heart wanted to weep and sob SOOOO badly! Thought of personal guilt FLOODED my mind. There was NO time....No time for that.
I bounded around the back of the truck and began to check injuries. There were people from the other truck pulling others out of the bed who were stuffed and stacked on top of each other in the corner up against the back of the cab. I looked down into the bed, there was Jo Phe!ffer stuufed in to the corner. Still I couldn't BELIEVE this was HAPPENING.
Nancy was to my left with crying with blood all over her face, her teeth were bashed in so far you could hardly see them, looked like they were gone. AGAIN my mind wanted to freak.
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HCW
I jumped into the bed
and hooked under Jo's arms. Pulling I began yelling for help to get her out and then went to check Na^cy. Then I went to Don Juan; he was moaning loudly and bleeding from his hand and face. He cried out, "Helllp!" and I took his hand saying,
"I'm here bro, just breathe, slow & deep. Breathe, slow & deep, Don't try to move..."
Don Juan was in a LOT of pain, his hip was somewhat contorted and he said his left shoulder was out of joint. While comforting him again, Isurveyed the scene. It was gruesome. There were bleeding people and small puddles of blood scattered all around me. In the midst of all the hustle and bustle and moaning and crying I sorta faded into myself. The noise and movements all became muffled and slow motion again and I almost broke and wept - - again.
Just then Steve said, "Don't worry. I'm not as bad as I look." he - looked - HORRIBLE. His face was streaked with blood like something out of a cheap horror movie. Thoughts of the BLOOD, broken bones, the twisted remains of the truck and shattered trailer, luggage, backpacks, and those ever present SACK LUNCHES(damn those things) converged on me and I felt my sanity slipping away. Steve's remark kinda made me laugh. He looked REALLY bad but he had this stupid SMILE on his face! The laughing snapped me back to reality.
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HCW
I turned my attention back to Don Juan. "Squeeze my hand, man." I told him to take his mind off the pain. He pleaded not to be moved, he thought he was sliding down the hill even though he was laying still. I did my best to distract him and focus his mind to keep him stable.
By now several more paramedic busses had arrived. I flagged some over and they strapped Don Juan on a body board to move him. I got out of their way and went around from person to person checking the extent of injuries, looking for broken bones concussions & the like.
I had SCREAMED at paramedics, the first ones to arrive to take Rochelle. There had been so much activity. 13 people in various states of injury, so much running around that the first paramedic unit to leave w/ Rochelle in it had kinda wrecked into the second LEAD truck pulling out. They just powered past it and zoomed away full lights & sirens.
When I was checking Rochelle, she was holding her hands on her head, rocking & crying. "Rochelle, move your hands out of the way, I HAVE to check your head." I told her.
"Nooooooo." she said, "Ohhhh Nooooo!" She was always sooo stubborn.
"ROCHELLE - - LET me SEE your HEAD!" I said a wee bit sternly. I have to check so I can tell the paramedics who's hurt the worst. Come on honey, let me see it. This is ME, let me see it ok?"
She nodded. and I began to gently move her hands away. The skin on her head moved with her hands. I saw what I thought was her skull inside the slice. "WHAT hit you? I said. She pointed and said I think that thing hit me." It was a piece of the aluminum siding laying near her with some blood on it. That thing had literally scalped her about half of the top of her head, she was holding it together with her hands.
I SCREAMED. "MEEDDDDDDDDDIIIIIIIIICCCCC! MEDIC! GET a medic OVER HERE - - - NOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!"
They took her away first.
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HCW
Paramedics started carting people off into the ambulances then Donnie and people from the LEAD lodge arrived. (This was pre cellphone days.)
After a short while we got everybody everybody into ambulances and cleared most of the luggage away then Donnie told us that could walk to go back to the lEAD lodge. I went back to the other truck to get all belongingd, etc. then grabbed some sack suppers & left in the truck.
==============================
Of the 16 people in the truck, 14 were riding in the pickup bed. They were having fun cracking jokes & stuff. Someone had just told the punchline of a joke when he hit the ravine. They had just burst into laughter moments before the truck hit the solid wall of earth and went from about 45-50 mph to zero in an instant. The truck went downward, twisting to its left while tipping foreward.
This made some people scrunch together in the right front corner of the pickup bed.
The trailer flipped up like a slingshot. Up over and foreward. Some people were catapaulted out of the truck, those that weren't scrunched. The trailer missed EVERYONE and hit the back of the cab, exploding on impact.
There were people, luggage, backpacks & sack suppers splashed over the area. Fractions of seconds was the difference that saved MANY lives. One guy had actually been thrown from the truck, flipped over in mid air, hit the ground in a foreward roll position and landed on his feet! Some had a few cuts & scratches. others broken bones. We felt it was miraculous that the trailer didn't impact on snybody. Pieces of it cut people flying by them.
No one was killed there at the scene.
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HCW
There's more. but I'm spent. later.
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JustThinking
Wow, I never heard about this! HCW, thank you for telling the tale.
Kudos to my fellow ADD'ers who supported your serial approach. I can't do the 3/4 page posts. System failures occur.
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Cowgirl
Hi HCW, I don't mean to derail this thread, but I was just wondering if you had heard about 2 other incidents, one where some wacko guys came into the camp with guns and threatened to kill some of the lead people and another one where some Lead people were out on some road and their vehicle went over a cliff and they never made it. One of my old twig co-ordinators and his wife who helped to run LEAD relayed this to me many years ago so the details are rather sketchy.
Cowgirl
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Sunesis
Thank you HCW. Please continue - this is the first time I've ever heard the details.
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Daggoo
A corps man hitchhiking to LEAD was struck by a vehicle and killed. Comment I heard was: "he fell asleep at the switch". That is all they said. Damn them.
While hitching to LEAD a 10 corps woman was abducted at a truck stop and beaten and raped. She escaped alive. Never returned to Emporia.. At least J Lynn communicated concern for her and her whereabouts.
There were MANY deaths by accidents, murder and suicide very few have heard about..
ie: A young WOW girl was murdered in NJ
Some posters here have knowledge of these terrible incidents and more. Just breaks my heart that I thought all was Good and Kind in twi.
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waterbuffalo
HCW, please check your pt. Thx!
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Yanagisawa
Thanks HCW.
I was in the thirteenth and two good friends of mine were involved - a guy named Wes and a girl named Dawn. I heard only the official certified sanitized version which always included phrases like "not sharp" and "out of fellowship" and "spiritually weak".
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