Authors: Patrick Shea
Heather had her M-16 resting on her hip and the barrel pointing upwards. She
pulled the trigger and emptied the magazine. All three ladies screamed and
starting scurrying back towards their trucks.
Heather looked at the others and said, “Let’s get Danny to the doctor.”
As they passed through the vehicles that had been waiting behind them Jack
said, “You must have had twenty five or thirty drivers here earlier, how did
they get back to the park?”
Noah said, “We brought a bus out here. Danny was sure that Turner didn’t care
about him as much as he did the camp at the park. He set this up to look like
our entire militia had gathered here for the exchange, and then sent almost all
of the men back to help Ted Green spring a trap.”
“We won’t know what’s actually happened until we get to West Yellowstone. Danny
and Ted agreed that the best place for an ambush was at the west entrance to
the park. The goal was to capture them, but for that we need their
cooperation.”
Sam was driving and Shelly was doing what she could to keep Danny alive for the
trip home. The group was quiet during the drive.
11:05
a.m. West Yellowstone, Montana
Sam pulled into town and found the medical RV and team waiting for them. They
had put a mattress under Danny for the drive, but he was still unconscious,
although it looked like the bleeding had stopped.
The doc said, “Let me look at him before we move him to the gurney and the
operating room, which is my RV. Everyone not on my team needs to leave now and
give us some room. I’ll talk to you as soon as I can.”
The group gathered around Ted Green, who had been waiting with the doc and Ted
said, “As I told you on the radio, Turner and his group of hooligans came into
town at about six o’clock, just as Danny said they would. There are about fifty
men with Turner in fifteen vehicles. Six of the vehicles are snow cats, eight are
tracked vehicles which were used for showing the park to tourists in the winter,
and one is a snow plow.
“They used Canyon Street and Yellowstone Ave and then made the right turn towards
the park’s west entrance. Our nightly blockade was in place, twenty yards
before the entrance station. We had three rows of vehicles parked across the
road and staggered so there was no easy way for Turner to break through. We
also had five men in the trees on either side of the barricade, all heavily
armed.
“Twenty yards short of the barricade Turner and the rest of his group parked in
a straight line. Ten men dismounted and walked up to the lead vehicle, the snow
plow. They talked for a minute and then the snow plow started forward,
accelerating quickly. He was obviously going to try to break through.
“I gave the order to fire as soon as he started moving. My men intentionally
shot out all the tires and then lit up the cab. The plow stopped. As the other
men scrambled back to their own vehicles we killed or wounded six of the ten.
Those bodies are still out there.
“As we were shooting, we had five of our snow plows park from ditch to ditch
across the back of Turner’s convoy. We dropped the blades, kept the
transmissions in gear and made sure the parking brakes were engaged. The goal
was to have the five drivers stay in the trucks until I told Turner what to do.
The three drivers in the inside plows would have to climb out the windows to
exit, so there was no room for either men or machine to get by the blockade.
“We then turned on the klieg lights so that both sides of their vehicles were
lit up. I used the bullhorn to tell Turner that he was surrounded and had
multiple weapons pointed at him. I told him if he did what I said he and his
men might live through the morning.
“Turner had outdoor speakers on the roof of his vehicle and immediately
started to give his men orders. My men shot up his speakers but we didn’t fire
on the occupants.
“As soon as our snow plow drivers started moving forward the doors in the last
vehicle opened and men started to get out. They were all armed and they were
moving quickly. We shot two of them outside of the vehicle and you’ll see them
still lying there. One man started firing through the back window of the rear
vehicle; he was either very good or very lucky because his first shot killed
one of our drivers.
“I ordered Danny’s light machine gun to fire on that vehicle and it was
decimated. I’m not sure how many men were involved, but I am sure they’re dead.
The vehicle smoldered for hours.
“After we stopped firing I used the bullhorn to talk one more time. I told the
men that Turner was no longer in charge, that I was, and they were going to sit
there quietly until you returned from the exchange. Lastly I told them that
what happened to them would be based in part on what had occurred at the
exchange this morning.
Noah asked, “Ted, any movement since then?”
“Yeah, every fifteen minutes I’ve had our heavy weapons shoot up the engine of
a different vehicle. I haven’t explained anything to Turner, and I don’t intend
to.
“Then fifteen or twenty minutes ago two shots were fired from inside one of the
vehicles, but all of the windows are closed and they are all frosted over, but
no rounds exited any vehicle that we could see. I’m not sure what happened, but
we’ll find out in due course.”
Jack looked up and said, “What’s next?”
Ted answered, “We need to talk about that. I have some recommendations but
Danny wanted to wait until you arrived back here before we took the next step.”
As they talked the medical team put Danny on a gurney and moved him to the
medical RV. Sam had stayed with the team and now walked up to the group and
said, “Danny was shot twice. Once in the chest and once in the shoulder. He was
wearing a bullet proof vest but the bullet punched through it. The doc doesn’t
know if he’ll live or not, he said it looks real iffy right now.”
Shelly said, “Colonel, I’d like to talk to Turner for just a minute. I’m pretty
sure that nothing we say will get him to give up easily but I think hearing me
talk will convince some of his men it’s time to walk away from this.”
Ted said, “Good idea. If we can get them to surrender we’ll all be better
off.”
Minutes later the group was standing in the bed of the center snowplow looking
at the back of Turner’s convoy.
Shelly used the bullhorn to say, “Hey Turner, it’s me again. You didn’t think
those losers you left at the exchange point were really going to be able to
hurt anyone did you? Speaking of losers, we heard some shots earlier and I’m
guessing one of your chumps finally shot you. That couldn’t happen to a nicer
guy.
“But in case I’m wrong I want you to know that I’m looking forward to meeting
with you after this is over. Just you and me, alone at last. We’ll be able to
talk about old times and about the nice men you had visit me last night. Won’t
that be neat?
“By the way did I mention that after we killed all of the men you left behind
we burned your town and all of your RVs? I think it was great of you to leave
that tanker in the parking lot, we really appreciated that.
“Oh, and your women are still sitting on the Interstate wondering how to
survive this. Most of them are without winter gear, and of course we shot up
all of the engines on the pickups. We didn’t want to make life too easy for
them but we did let them live.
“Like we’ll do for your men, at least for now. All you have to do is put down
the windows on your vehicle and wave a white cloth at us. You then dismount
slowly and walk with your hands over your head back to the center snow plow.
One at a time, when we tell you to do so, you’ll climb over the hood of the
snow plow and onto the cab. You’ll have rifles trained on you the entire time
so any quick move on your part will prove deadly to you.
“Make sure you have no weapons with you. If we find a gun or knife when we
search you’ll pay dearly. You men are thieves and murderers and we’re going to
treat you as such. You’ll receive a trial by a court that we establish. You have
only one other choice, and that’s to fight your way out of here. That would
also be called suicide.”
By the time Shelly was done speaking the first window was down and the first
white flag was waving.
Shelly handed the bullhorn to Ted Green who said, “Third vehicle from the rear,
come out slowly without weapons and your hands in the air. I have men in the
trees on either side of you so move slowly.
“If anyone in another vehicle puts down the window or shoots a weapon I’ll
light up that vehicle with the machine gun. It’s in the best interest of
everyone in each vehicle to keep your friends quiet.”
Ninety minutes later all but two of the vehicles had been emptied and the men
had been searched, cuffed and locked in an RV with guards posted at each
corner. Turner had not yet made an appearance and all of the snow cats were now
empty.
Noah looked at Ted and asked, “What’s your thought on the remaining men?”
“I think the cold will get to them within hours. We don’t really need to kill
them since time will solve the problem, although killing them is still an
option.”
Shelly said, “Turner has a mental problem you know, he won’t react like a sane
person. But what bothers me is the second vehicle. Why haven’t they
surrendered?
Noah said, “I don’t know the answer but I feel like it has something to do with
the shots that were fired earlier. But whatever it is, I think following Ted’s
advice and waiting for the weather to force them out is a decent plan for now.
I’m concerned with how late it’s getting to be though. We only have about three
hours of daylight left. Whatever happens I think should be while it’s still
daylight.”
Ted said, “I agree, let’s wait until four o’clock and if there isn’t any
progress by then we’ll force the issue. That gives us two and a half hours to
decide how to proceed. Just so you know, my first choice will be to fire on
them. They aren’t worth losing any more men over.”
Col Green was rotating his militia every half hour to make sure they didn’t
freeze. All of Sam’s team volunteered to take their turn but Ted told them they
had done enough, there were others willing to finish this up.
The snow started about three o’clock and quickly changed from a light fluffy
snow to a heavy blowing snow.
3:05
pm. Inside Turner’s vehicle
Turner looked at the men around him and said, “I told you luck was on our side.
This is what we need but we’ll have to move fast, and keep moving. If we can
get out of here we can hide in the town until we get a vehicle we can use.”
He continued, “Brian, call Dog and tell him we’ll leave in exactly five
minutes.”
All of the men started stamping there feet and rubbing there hands. One of
Turner’s men had found a case of hand warmers and he had thrown them in this
truck without a second thought. Right now he thought he might have saved all of
their lives. He didn’t know how Dog and his group kept from freezing.
The tracked vans they rode in had been made locally from minivans or panel
trucks. The wheels and axles had been removed and the vans were placed on top
of tank tracks that would move them through any weather. Turner wasn’t sure how
they managed to find a transmission that would connect to both the engine and
the tracks, but they did. This left the vehicles high off the ground and
difficult to enter and exit.
When Turner realized he had driven into a trap he searched his vehicle and
asked the others to do the same. His van and one other carried tool kits. The
others were completely bare of any extras. From that point on Turner talked
only with Dog, who was in the other van with a tool box.
The underside of the van stood three feet off the ground. Turner had torn and
cut up the floor until he found the best place for an escape hatch. There were solid
metal cross pieces welded across the underside that kept them from making an
opening wide enough to drop through. It took two shots from his .45 to weaken
the brace enough so his men could break through and then bend the two pieces
downward.
Dog and his crew had been able to find a section large enough for them to
escape without reverting to firearms.
They had been waiting for hours for the right time to try to escape. Turner was
worried that his captors wouldn’t wait until dark, and if he tried to escape in
broad daylight it would take a giant stroke of luck to get away. The snow storm
was like a godsend for him.
It was now 3:15pm and blowing steadily. Visibility was down to ten yards and
Turner gave the signal to move out the van. He stayed connected to Dog on the
cell phone and when the three men in each vehicle were all on the ground he
gave the word to move quietly into the forest on the north side of the road.
All of the gunfire to this point had come from either the front or the rear of
the convoy. Turner believed that with the ground being level with the road on
both sides that the enemy wouldn’t put shooters directly across from each other
and he was very optimistic they could disappear into the woods and make their way
north and then west into the town itself.
The group of six men huddled about a hundred yards north of the convoy and
Turner looked at them and said, “Okay, from here on we’ll pair up and it will
be every man for himself. Dog and I’ll be together, you two and you two make
the other pairs.”
He continued, “You first, go now and stay low.”
He waited three minutes and said, “Okay you two get out of here.”
Now that he and Dog were alone he said, “We’re going to make our way to the
rear of their column. They don’t know we’re out yet and they sure won’t expect
us to move on them. We’re going to take hostages and an RV and get out of here.
We’ll head east on I-90 and then south. We’ll be okay as long as we keep our
heads and move fast.”