With the football season over, if you are looking for an inspiring read ,may I suggest : Lost on a Mountain in Maine. A very true story of a 12 year old boy lost for 9 days on Maine's highest mountain, Katahdin, back in 1939. A search party, the largest ever assembled in Maine, consisted of: Gov. Barrows activated the National Guard and sent all to the area ,to join State Police and forest Rangers. A crack unit of New York State Troopers with bloodhounds. Two local paper mills opened their doors and sent 1,000+ workers to the search.
ON DAY 7 : The worn out searchers announced that it was no longer rescue but retrieval as "no lad that young could last that long.
PROBLEM : The search parameters were set inside of where an estimated 12 year old could have wandered. They misjudged as 12 year Donn Fendler wasn't wandering. He was on a mission to survive and find civiliztion and used his Boy Scout instincts. As the search began, Donn was already beyond their parameters.
ON DAY 9: Battered, bruised,bitten, scared, scraped, scratched BUT VERY ALIVE ,Donn Fendler found civiliztion in the form of a hunting camp some 30 miles beyond the search party's parameter.
THEREAFTER: Maine's governor ordered a parade in Donn's honor. This had became a national story and the nation rejoyced. FDR invited Donn to the White House where he was presented with The Navy Metal of Valor.
Personally, I have met Don Fendler a couple of times in his later years. I was Alumni Association President of the prep school that Donn had attended and presented him with an award. He spent many of his years after retirement addressing students with a "NEVER GIVE UP" speech. He left school early join WW II as an ARMY RANGER. A movie entitled :"Lost on a Mountain in Maine" is scheduiled to be released this summer. I'll be watching.
Thank you for taking the time to read this,
Ralph
