Recovery team to tackle China's austere slopes
By Capt. Geoffrey Kent and Sgt. Erika Gladhill
HICKAM AFB, Hawaii (Army News Service, Aug. 11, 2004) - After three weeks of mountain training in Alaska and triathlon training in Hawaii, U.S. Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command recovery team members said they were "ready to execute" their mission in the Himalayas.
The JPAC recovery team departs Aug. 12 to the Tibetan Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China, to recover the remains of three Americans lost in a C-46 crash in the Himalayan Mountains during World War II.
The site is located at an altitude of more than 14,000 feet and is only miles from the border of India. It can only be reached after trekking for four days from the nearest village.
The JPAC team trained for this mission with the Northern Warfare Training Center at Fort Greeley, Denali National Park and Mt. McKinley, Alaska, for three weeks.
This 13-member specialized team includes Army mountaineers, an Air Force pararescueman, a Marine Chinese linguist, an orthopedic surgeon, an explosive ordnance disposal expert, a special forces medic and several mortuary affairs specialists.
The team has prepared for their Tibetan mission by gaining mountaineering experience, reacting to changes in altitude, validating the team's fitness program, learning critical survival skills, familiarizing themselves with their equipment and ensuring the team was prepared for a grueling expedition and recovery into remote Tibet. The training challenge was highlighted by the training location the West Buttress route of Mount McKinley where there are 80-mile-per-hour winds, sub-zero temperatures and a blistering wind chill.
To ensure team readiness, training in Alaska was designed by mountaineer instructors of the NWTC and tailored specifically to challenge the team members both physically and mentally.
In Alaska, team members completed two major exercises. The first was a three-day trek through precipitous and taxing terrain at the Black Rapids Training Center at Fort Greely, Alaska. The second exercise was a nine-day expedition on the West Buttress route of Mount McKinley that covered 22 miles and a climb in elevation of 8,000 feet to McKinley's 14,200-foot base camp.
"After you reach about 12,000 feet your every effort becomes magnified because you spend so much effort breathing," said Maj. Karl Larsen, U.S. Air Force chief of orthopedics services, of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo. "Everything becomes more difficult. Cold temperatures are about ten degrees with wind, and similarly in the sunny areas temperatures can reach close to 100 degrees."
As individuals climb in varying altitudes, breathing becomes more rapid and deep. As a result of the altitude change, the body's chemistry is altered. That has a whole hosts of changes in the way people handle fluids, said Larsen, including changes in the acid-base balance in the body, and the process of how oxygen is transferred to the tissues.
The physiological part of it is simple in context, but complicated in application, said Larsen. The adjustment time normally takes one to two weeks to acclimate. A reaction to the extreme temperatures is internal swelling that can cause illness and, in its most serve form people can die from drowning in their own fluids, said Larsen.
U.S. Army Capt. Geoffrey Kent, a JPAC team leader, from Falls Church, Va., said, "What we found in Alaska is that your body will do whatever your mind tells it to do. When you surround yourself with a team that is as motivated as the one that I¹ve got, it makes it that much easier."
Kent said there were certainly times the team members were exhausted and in pain.
"There were times when we asked ourselves what we were doing there," Kent said, "Those feelings were lost the moment that we pulled out the POW/MIA flag at the 14,000 [foot] base camp that read, 'You Are Not Forgotten.' We owe it to too many people nothing but our very best effort. I will say one thing to the three men in Tibet that we will search for. 'We're coming for you, and we will bring you home.'"
The Alaska training was tough, Larsen said, but the JPAC team is ready for Tibet.
"This is the most prepared I've seen any team," said Larsen. "They thought this out, made a plan and stuck to it. I've been on seven remote deployments and I've never seen anyone this well trained. This is going to be a fantastic mission with an outstanding group of people put together to accomplish it."
Kent said, "We are equipped, prepared and motivated to execute this mission with the same sense of duty that these three men displayed on the day they were lost. We are confident that we will find success in Tibet."
The lost crew was transporting supplies from the Assam Valley in India over the Himalayan Mountains and into China during an operation on an air route that became known as the "hump." During operations on the "hump" more than 600 airplanes and 1,000 crewmen were lost.
World War II cases selected by JPAC are based on analysis of intelligence, the country's political stability, weather, site accessibility, logistics and safety. This particular mission is one of the most challenging operations JPAC will attempt to conduct, officials said, adding that the excavation of the crash site will take an estimated 30-45 days to complete.
Dr. Andrew Tyrell, a recovery leader and anthropologist from London, England, said the mission presents some challenges from a scientific point of view. The site is spread across a wide area and lies on a steep slope that¹s covered with layers of rocks and boulders.
The environment, said Tyrell, with its variable climate and active slopes, changed the disposition of this site considerably in the time since the crash. Photographs from the initial investigations show a tight focus of wreckage and material evidence at the top of the slope that is suggestive of a point of impact.
"It is here that I anticipate the recovery process beginning," Tyrell said.
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Swam, a U.S. Army team sergeant from Largo, Fla., said he is honored for the opportunity "to serve those service members who are lost and their families who wait for their return."
(Editor's note: Capt. Geoffrey Kent and Staff Sgt. Erika Gladhill serve with JPAC Public Affairs.)