Chapter 4 stared . . . . In awe

Interstate 70

0545 hours

John and Bill were catching up with the convoy from the 9242nd United States Army Reserve School.  They were supposed to have been part of the convoy but had received permission to use John’s Privately Owned Vehicle (POV).  They were late because they had been invited on a television program discussing their specialty and it’s relevance to American life. They had taped it in the wee hours, when the studio was available. It would be broadcast at 0800 Sunday morning.  It was obviously not that important a program.  They were military historians.  They had been given this permission, because of the hoped for good publicity for the Army and the school.

They were not even close to Saint Clairsville, Ohio on Interstate 70, when they slowly passed their first military vehicles and the congestion they caused. Military convoys were always slower than regular traffic. They were from the 49th Special Forces Group, nope, keep going.  As they approached Wheeling, West Virginia they started passing vehicles of the 849th United States Army Reserve Hospital, with its attached M.U.S.T., the post Korean War designation for a MASH unit, standing for Mobile Unit Surgical Transportable.

They were well into Pennsylvania, passed Washington, when they saw the school pulled over at a restaurant.  They were taking the exit when there was a blinding flash in the rearview mirror, the car motor died, and they were buffeted by heavy winds.  John, disoriented, tried to gradually put on the brakes.  Unfortunately, he ran off the road into the ditch.  Bill hit his head on the doorpost and split open his scalp.  When John recovered there was blood all over the expensive cloth interior of his Lincoln Town Car.  Head wounds always did bleed excessively. Then he noticed that he had not gone into a ditch but rather into snow covered forest. The exit road just stopped. John got out, assembled a ball from the clean snow and gave it to Bill to stop the bleeding and pain.

When they could not find a way to drive, John, Colonel John Lederer, Commanding Officer of the school, led Bill, Major William Odom, Assistant S-3 of the school, by foot to the restaurant.  As they approached, they saw that the rear of one bus had been sheared off and one corner of the restaurant. The school, after distributing the baggage and passengers of the destroyed bus among the other buses, drove five miles back towards Washington to get on the interstate and drove towards Wheeling.

Doctor Stanley Livingston Warren M.D., the head of Immunology at the BSK Laboratories, and Commanding Officer of the 849th United States Army Reserve Hospital, turned to Captain James Fay, the Medical Service Corps commander of the hospital convoy, and asked “Aren’t we a little spread out?”

The Captain reached for the microphone and said, “All Lizzie Borden units, close up.  Acknowledge by bumper number.”

A flash of light, dizziness, and motor problems afflicted the whole convoy.  It was a miracle that there was only one “rear ender”.  There were personnel staggering – wandering all over the side of the highway.  Then First Sergeant Menendez started roaring like a lion.  In short order every one was assembled by their vehicles, on the opposite side from the travel lanes.

“Get an NBC survey team to the site of that explosion immediately. Be sure they have MOPP gear.” Snapped Colonel Warren to Captain Fay.  “Make sure the rest of us are ready to move as far forward as safely possible.”

Staff Sergeant Thibodaux called in as soon as he confirmed that there was no radiation or other contamination.  “Lizzie Borden six this is Lizzie Borden H36, all clear on radiation but we have multiple serious burn victims.  Location BETHANY map sheet 837378 over.”

The convoy left Interstate 70 and went north towards BETHANY. Staff Sergeant Thibodaux was waiting on the side of the road and motioned the convoy into a shopping center parking lot. The hospital had hardly started setting up when the first burn victims showed up. But the triage section was ready at the first tent that had been setup.

The theory behind triage was that when faced with mass casualties that were more than the hospital could handle, the victims would be graded. The first group was the lightly injured that could safely wait for treatment. The second group was so seriously injured that immediate treatment would prevent their death or crippling. The third group was those who were too seriously injured for immediate treatment to help. Callous maybe but the most people would be saved this way.

There were so many burn victims that triage had to be applied rigorously.

Staff Sergeant Thibodaux and his team directed traffic and guided casualties to the correct place. He was surprised when the Camry, coming out of the disaster area, passed them with a wave.

One of the hospital’s ambulances moving around to the west of ground zero, found a complete housing project damaged by the impact of a passenger airplane. They found many non-burn injuries in the area and called for additional ambulances.

Colonel McCumber, the Commanding Officer of the First Battalion 49th Special Forces Group, was proud of his troops.  They had moved off the interstate and set up a perimeter in the woods by 0720 hours.  Unfortunately he only had two of his companies plus a team missing one of their humvees. He heard a radio report that the front of the missing humvee, from the windshield forward with one of the driver’s legs, was sitting in the middle of the interstate.  He also had an orphan Civil Affairs Company that had appeared between the serials of his command.  He ordered the rear two teams to conduct a reconnaissance of the deep woods that had appeared right across Interstate 70.  The snow in July was perplexing and unexplainable.

Captain Morton appeared with the three detainees that he had radioed about.  They wore fur robes, skins and moccasins and carried bows and arrows and stone headed axes. “They did not respond to any of the languages tried by members of the headquarters group.  They just stared at the soldiers and vehicles in awe.” Reported his S2.

The Air Force Liaison with his battalion headquarters started excitedly motioning him over to his humvee. When he reached there, the captain said, “Colonel, we have been receiving these strange signals on our air radio channels. My radio operator localized it on the civilian emergency air channel. There was a commercial jet trying to contact us because he had to land and needed the eastbound lanes of Interstate 70 cleared in an area past St. Clairsville. He had been unable to contact the state police, so when he saw our large group of army hummers he tried to contact us. Do you hear that airliner Colonel? That’s him.”

Colonel McCumber picked up the directions from the Air Force officer and said, “Major Meier get Alpha Company and the first four teams of Bravo Company saddled up and moving east on Interstate 70. Have one team establish a roadblock at the second overpass past St. Clairsville. They are to allow no one on eastbound I 70. The rest of the teams are to continue at least two miles clearing all the cars and trucks off of that stretch. If they are broken down on the side of the road tow them out of that stretch. We want no obstructions to a civilian airliner landing. If there are any entrances, setup a roadblock as far from the travel lanes as possible.”

It was an awesome sight. The airliner landed almost perfectly. Of course that was almost. It was breaking on the cleared stretch when one landing gear went off the side.  When it caught in the dirt, it collapsed and the airliner slid in a quarter circle on its wing.  It stopped facing diagonally across the road, when the other landing gears collapsed from the uneven strain.  Ladders were deployed and the passengers started climbing out of the airliner. The army vehicles approached rapidly and the soldiers piled out and directed the escapees well away from the airliner in case of fire. Ambulances and fire trucks arrived from St. Clairsville. They were able to treat the three sprained ankles, one bumped head and innumerable other bumps and bruises. Once the airplane was secured and they were sure there was no fire danger the cabin staff passed luggage from the overhead compartments and under the seats and sent them down to the passengers. As soon as the passengers had their belongings they were conveyed to St. Clairsville. By this time it was getting very cold and they were not dressed for it.

As passengers exited the aircraft, a man in flight officers uniform ran up to the soldiers. He said, “I need to talk to the commander, immediately.”

He was directed to the battalion command post. “There is a flight returning from Indianapolis. For some reason he can hear your transmissions but you cannot hear his. He is very short on fuel. We were counting on him landing behind us on this stretch of road. I think we messed things up when we went off the road and blocked it. Are there any other symbols corrections of road in this area?” he asked the colonel.

A St. Clairsville fire chief at the command post said, “Route 22 near Steubenville has a long straight four lane stretch. Is there time for them to clear it?”

“I think he’ll buzz it once quickly and then land. Can you have someone with flashing lights at the end of the clear space?” asked the copilot.

The fire chief quickly called the Steubenville fire department on the radio and arranged for the flashing lights.

It was like listening to a ballgame on the radio.  Everyone was gathered around the fire department radio. They listened to the play by play intently.  By this time there was very little traffic on Route 22.  Every one with the exception of one fool accelerated out of the area or turned off on to side roads. The fool got out of his car and tried to follow the airplane.  Luckily, he was close enough for a fire chief’s car to get him out of the way. There was very little excitement after that. It touched down splashing the snowy sludge off the roadway. It braked steadily and was able to stop just before it touched the bridge rail of the overpass where the vehicle with the flashing lights was parked. There was so little fuel left that the jet engines flamed out before they could be turned off.  All’s well that ends well I suppose.

When the leader of one of the reconnaissance teams, reported back it was almost an anti climax. “There were two feet of snow as far as I could see into the forest. I went a kilometer and a half into the forest where the interstate should have been.  It was tough going.  We surprised three men gutting a deer.  I sent the three detainees to the S2. The interstate was sheared off smooth.” Reported Captain Dan Banner. “ Oh, we finished gutting the deer on the way back and brought it with us.”