MCSO Jeep Posse |
Unusual Incidents One time we were up on the Superstitions close to Weavers Needle and the going was pretty rough. Frank Glemba was just ahead of me when he hit a big boulder. Now he was a big man. He fell out of his Jeep head first onto the same boulder. He gave a big push with his hands and bounced right back into his seat. I talked with him later and he said he wasn't going to tell anybody about it because they wouldn't believe it happened. Jim Epp was climbing a tough hill. We were all watching when suddenly his door flew open and Jim landed on the ground. His Jeep kept right on going up the hill. George Schmelling was climbing a tricky little hill. Again we were all looking when suddenly he rolled his Jeep over. Jerry Stuckey was also climbing and rolled his Jeep where he landed it on it's top in a canyon. Dow Stone did the same. Of all the rough places I have been in, I did a complete roll on black ice on the highway this side of Prescott (and this was not a Jeep run.). We once found a woman in the desert who had been dead for about three months. This was an unusual sight. There was an auto found west of Wickenburg that was not locked and had clothes inside for a man a woman, along with a razor and two toothbrushes. The Sheriff's Office suspected foul play so we searched the area. Later, it was found that they had walked into Wickenburg. One was trying to catch a bus to Florida and the other to Seattle. Somebody, one time brought in a skull from the desert down below Buckeye and we went looking for a body. A man put a flag on the highest point of the Estrella Mountains and then disappeared. We searched. We found his briefcase on a rock near the flag. A year later rabbit hunters found his remains in the canyon below; his head was never found. We spent three days searching for a man in the Superstitions. His body was found two years later and his head was also never found. |
We once took several big wheels for the county down into the White Tank Mountains so they could decide on a site for a county park down there. We took them over the top and down the other side. My rider was a big man. I managed to get into a position where the Jeep was ready to roll. I asked my guest if he would carefully climb out on the low side and get in on the high side and lean back. He did. And he laughed and said he had done that many time in a sailboat but never in a Jeep. I saw our present captain's vehicle in a position where when I pushed down on the left front fender, the right rear wheel would rise eighteen inches in the air. In my opinion, the worst incident happened up at Hell's Hip Pocket. This was years ago on a Sunday in February. We went down the last hill right to the Pocket Comb. It was raining a little and nobody could climb that last hill. Murt Clayborne came up a ways and skidded and rolled about four times. With no roll bar he got beat up pretty bad. Dr. Hooper was there. I built a fire and rigged a shelter. We called a chopper from Williams Field and they came in under the clouds and took him out. Now remember this happened about 20 years ago. There was no big tires, etc. Everyone had a four-banger Jeep. Most of them, the Jeeps that is, had a more or less honorable discharge from the army. Mine was called a farm Jeep. I drove and towed mine over 100,000 miles and never had a set of front hubs on it. WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Bob Dearing says he was 90 on his last birthday. Over the last 40 or so years he has made many contributions to the Jeep Posse including serving as commander. He is also past commander of the "National Jeep S&R Ass'n." Now, "Jeep" has been dropped (I think Chevrolet donated a Blazer for a raffle) and it is now the "National S&R Ass'n." I think Bob was probably in the thick of a lot of happenings. We always told him to, "write it down" and he did. We will draw on some of his stories and his wisdom as time goes by. These stories are as Bob wrote them. |
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