“So, the thing is, I've been hearing y'all, and it's good that we are down here and there's no snow and stuff, because reasons.”
Seven-year-old Amanda Ludlow couldn't really explain to her nine-year-old brother George, her ten-year-old brother Andrew, and their nine-year-old friend Milton Trent from next door, so she took her brothers' hands and led them, with Milton following, to where Col. H.F. Lee was talking on the phone to a young officer in Special Forces (with a touch of Black Ops) that he was mentoring for the U.S. army.
“So, understanding how to work with snowy terrain is very important … now a mountain with lots of snow, and permanent snow – both of those are completely different things if you have to track a target through there. Unless you have familiarized yourself like a local, that's such an easy way to die because there are are crevasses, seracs, and constant movement downward of the glaciers, and locals who are familiar with any mountain know how to work with that.
“Working with weapons is a real issue on high mountains, too. Metal contracts in cold, so time is short if you do not have a well-made gun, and the avalanche risk from the sound of the shot is high. But you need a good knife and an ice pick anyhow. Spare yourself the added weight if you can.”
“Oh, that incident – I didn't have time to do everything I would have done because the situation was developing, but there was a mini-serac and my gun had one last bullet. It was a long shot, but what I did was take out the ice just above the serac and the weight of that was enough to knock off just enough of that mini-serac to cause an avalanche just big enough to roll the target right down that slope to me. I pulled him out of the avalanche. He thanked me, and kept thanking me, because I literally carried him off that mountain into custody … he had no idea that sharp crack he heard was me setting up that whole situation. Yes, I could have taken him out. That wasn't the mission. The information he gave up was more than worth his life. You have to remember what the mission is.”
“Yep,” Milton said as he and the Ludlows at last walked away. “I see why God has us where we are and I feel like I need to call my dad and tell him where I am after confirming to my grandparents that I'm here!”
“Look,” George said, “I'm going to make sure right now that nobody needs to be tracking me.”
“I was trying to explain, but I really couldn't, but now you know,” Amanda said.
“I'm going to get the water hose set up – y'all come by after our check-ins so I can wash that Angel of Death angel dust out of all our ears,” Andrew said. “He was doing more angel things, but Cousin Harry and those knives and that ice pick … y'all come on and let me get all that out of your ears.”