Better late than never

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Navy vet, who left his wallet in Antarctica in 1968, gets it back 53 years later

 

Reunited and it feels so cold.

 

A Navy vet who left his wallet in Antarctica is finally back in possession of it — 53 years later.

 

Meteorologist Paul Grisham who endured a 13-month stint as a weather forecaster on the deep-freeze continent until 1968, got the shock of his life when his long-lost billfold arrived in the mail.

 

“I was just blown away,” said Grisham, who doesn’t even recall losing it. “There was a long series of people involved who tracked me down and ran me to ground,” reported The San Diego Union-Tribune.

 

After his assignment on the frozen tundra was complete, the now-91-year-old San Diego resident returned home minus his wallet, which was discovered behind a locker during the demolition of a building at the Antarctic station on Ross Island.

 

Among its contents were Grisham’s driver’s license, a beer-ration punch card, a to-do list in case of atomic attack, money-order receipts, a tax statement and a recipe for homemade Kahlúa.

 

After weeks of trying to locate Grisham, the wallet was returned to its rightful owner, thanks in part to Bruce McKee of the nonprofit Indiana Spirit of ‘45.

 

“I have a deep love for those that serve and their stories,” said McKee, an Air Force vet. “Something such as an old wallet can mean so much to someone with the memories that item holds.”

 

Prior to his assignment in Antarctica, Grisham, who enlisted in the Navy in 1948, spent four years aboard the U.S.S. Bennington prior to sailing on the U.S.S. Hancock during the fall of Saigon in 1975, noted the Union-Tribune.

 

But in between those stints, he was was assigned to “Operation Deep Freeze” in Antarctica, providing logistical support to scientists on the base.

 

Recalling his Antarctica job as memorable, he has never forgotten the unyieldingly frigid climes.

 

“Let me just say this, if I took a can of soda pop and set it outside on the step, if I didn’t retrieve it in 14 minutes it would pop open because it had frozen,” explained Grisham.

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Man spends seven days stranded after his GPS directed him to an unplowed mountain pass

 

A man who became stranded during heavy snow in the backcountry of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains for a week after following the directions on his GPS was rescued alive after surviving on a small supply of food and melted snow.

 

Harland Earls, 29, was traveling from Grass Valley to Truckee for a birthday party on January 24, a drive that would typically take less than two hours, when a heavy snowstorm shut down Interstate 80. Seeking an alternate route, Earls turned to his GPS, according to the Sierra County Sheriff’s Office.

 

The device directed Earls to the shortest route on the map. But the GPS didn’t account for Henness Pass Road being an unplowed mountain pass and Earls ended up being stuck for days in snow so deep he was unable turn his vehicle around, the sheriff’s office said.

 

“The GPS doesn’t know if there’s six feet of snow on a road or if the road is clear and passable,” Sierra County Sheriff Mike Fisher told CNN.

 

Stuck and unable to obtain a cell phone signal, Earls tried tying small branches to the tires of his pickup truck to gain some traction, his mother, Julie Earls told CNN. In the process, his cell phone got wet and stopped working. The resourceful man found some dry spaghetti noodles and handwarmer packets in his truck, and popped them into a Ziploc bag with his phone. It took three days, but the phone finally dried out enough to for him to charge it and make a call. But finding cell service wasn’t as easy.

 

While Earls survived on two cans of beans, some sausages and a few pieces of stale, moldy bread, the man’s family reported him missing and assembled search parties to hunt for him. Law enforcement was alerted and various agencies were on the lookout for Earls and his pickup truck.

 

The sheriff’s office said that Earls’ pickup truck had a camper that provided some shelter and he had winter clothing and some propane for a camp stove.

 

In the meantime, another storm moved through the region, dumping even more snow, his mother said

 

Yet she wasn’t about to give up on finding her son.

 

“I will not wait until spring to find his body. I will find him now if I have to go out there myself,” Julie Earls said, noting that her son had always been interested in survival skills and that as a boy, she would often find him reading a survival skills book with a flashlight in the middle of the night.

 

Earls was able to cut wood for a fire, and used a small propane camp stove to melt snow into drinking water, which he drank out of a small dog dish. He tried hiking out a few times, but couldn’t make it far enough to find a cell phone signal as he kept sinking into the deep snow. He had now been stuck for seven days

 

“And then on Sunday (January 31), he really was desperate and he was out of provisions and … his phone was finally charging up to at least 50%,” his mother said. “So it gave him the chance to hike up to the highest point.”

 

Earls strapped two snowboards to his feet to use as makeshift snowshoes to hike to a place where he could get cell service. The connection was bad and the call quickly dropped, but it lasted long enough for him to give the 911 operator his name and birth date.

 

Law enforcement was able to pinpoint the GPS location of his phone and launched ground search and rescue teams as well as a helicopter. After scouring the area, the California Highway Patrol helicopter crew located him “almost immediately,” Fisher said.

 

His mother said Earls declined any medical attention once he was rescued.

 

“He just wanted to get home. He was hungry, cold and tired, very weary as I met him at the sheriff’s station,” she said.

 

Earls is physically doing well, his mother said.

 

“I’ve been feeding him all of his favorite foods and vitamins and rehydrating,” she said. “He drank probably a gallon of water the first day that he got here.”

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47-year-old Washington man charged in deadly fire he allegedly started when he was 12

 

A 47-year-old Washington man is charged with first-degree murder resulting from a deadly fire he is accused of starting when he was 12.

 

On Thursday, Elmer Nash Jr. pleaded guilty for his involvement in a three-alarm blaze at Everett Community College that left a 48-year-old firefighter dead in 1987, KIRO reports.

 

Greg Parks, an 18-year veteran of the Everett Fire Department, was killed after becoming separated from five other firefighters, who battled unsuccessfully to contain the early morning inferno that engulfed the school’s library. It caused more than $8 million damage and destroyed 48,000 books before burning itself out. The student union was also destroyed, KIRO reports.

 

Police initially suspected several juvenile males had entered the library through an open window and deliberately started the blaze, but no one was charged. The case was revived by an arson detective in 2016, which led to multiple interviews with Elmer. He allegedly discussed details that could only be known by someone who was there and admitted guilt.

 

Parks’ widow expressed gratitude to investigators who helped bring her family closer to closure.

 

“We are so very grateful to the detectives who never gave up on this case,” Kathy Parks said. “Our family will always suffer knowing Gary hasn’t reaped the fruits of his life, grandchildren, daughters’ successes, and a wife who will cherish him forever.”

 

KIRO TV reports that Nash has had numerous run-ins with the law throughout his life and was incarcerated until just a few months ago. According to news outlet KATU, Nash’s rap sheet includes 14 felony convictions an adult and four as a juvenile.