This story is a trueaccounting of the events involving the Laffitte family which occurred on Jan. 3, 1999 on “Gass Peak” near Las Vegas. This is part one of a two part series.

Part 1

Much of my youth was spent in the outdoors doing the typical weekend camp-outs with the Boy Scouts and the occasional long-term summer camp. My dad and I spent countless hours on the water fishing and duck hunting anywhere from Louisiana to Michigan. I guess you could say that the outdoors was a place where I truly felt that I was in my element, and was confident that I could handle just about any outdoor situation — the proverbial “anywhere, anytime” type of attitude.

Camping and hiking in the woods prepares a young man and makes for an ideal transition to military life, so it came as no surprise to my parents when I announced that I would join the Marine Corps after graduating from college. A thorough course in land navigation with all of the map reading, terrain association, declination angle computations, and the like were the standard for brand-new second lieutenants attending The Basic School at Quantico, Va. My Marine training was fantastic, and I graduated as a land-navigation machine. The tools were in place. I could take a map and navigate from point A to point B with my eyes closed. Anytime, anyplace standard complacent attitude.

I spend as much time with my kids as I can. We enjoy outdoor activities like camping, fishing and hiking, so receiving orders to Nellis Air Force Base, Las Vegas, with all of its outdoor recreational opportunities was a dream come true. Several years had passed since my days as a Marine second lieutenant to the morning when I planned to take my kids out for a morning hike in the mountains just north of Nellis AFB. You could see the range where we were headed that particular morning from the front yard of our quarters in base housing. I had been through the area in my truck, and studied a map of the terrain features and the heights of the various mountain tops before the hike, so I was very familiar with the basic lay of the land.

It was January 3 and my kids were still enjoying Christmas gifts and their remaining time off from school when I began to pack for the hike. I had planned to surprise my kids on Christmas morning with the gift of a go-cart, but the only way to keep the gift a secret was to bring the go-cart home and hide it in the garage; the only way to fit the go-cart in the back of my truck was by taking the spare tire out and leaving it behind in my garage. The go-cart was a huge Christmas morning surprise and the kids were having a blast driving their new go-cart around the yard that morning as I began packing for the hike, but somewhere along the way I experienced a complete loss of “situational-awareness” and failed to put the spare tire back in the truck.

Around Nellis, early January means mild desert afternoons with fairly cold nighttime temperatures. I packed a small one-burner backpacking stove, a bag of rice, two cans of kidney beans, and a mess kit for four people in my backpack. I also threw in two canteens of water and a flashlight (even though we weren’t staying out after dark), the map from my office as well as my lensatic compass. My middle son was so excited about the trip and had his bag packed as if we were planning to summit Mt. Everest. He packed extra socks, shirts, and pants as well as extra matches, water, and had even thrown in a warm sweatshirt and our popular military camouflage poncho liner. I remember telling him that we’re “only going to be gone for a few hours and that I did not think that all of his ‘extra’ gear was really necessary but that if he really wanted to carry all that ‘stuff’ then it was his decision.”

As it turns out, he was much wiser than his father.

My older son and younger daughter had prepared by wearing their hiking boots, jeans, and long-sleeved shirts. Again, this was just supposed to be a simple four- or five-hour trip and then return home because dad was going to the movies with mom later on that night.

Before we left, I told my wife exactly where we were going and that we would definitely be back by 4 p.m. to make our movie date later that evening. Everybody was packed and loaded up. I told my wife good bye and after a kiss and a hug, we headed for the mountains.

To be continued next week ...