John Johnston Survival Story on Dateline

[Kevin Miller]

Last night on NBC's Dateline program there was an interesting story about a 69 year old northern Minnesota man named John Johnston. It seems he went looking for some cedar logs for his deck he was building and became lost and disorientated in the woods. Search parties that were formed using dogs, volunteers and included helicopters with infrared search equipment failed to find him and had all but given up. His ordeal lasted for eight days until he stumbled upon a dirt road and was saved by a passing motorist that videotaped his reunion with his family. He was the victim of numerous bug bites, exhaustion, cuts to his hands and face, hallucinations, hypothermia and lost thirty pounds. He said that he wouldn't be alive today if it weren't for his trusty pocket knife that enabled him to cut the bark from trees and keep warm. The knife looked to me like a Case trapper or something. Interesting story.
Did anyone else see it?
Kevin Miller

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Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His face always.

 

[Michael Bennett]

I saw it, too. Interesting story, especially considering everything he didn't have and everything he didn't do. He had no protective/waterproof outer layer of clothing for rainy, 30-40 degree weather. He had no fire starting tool, He had no water purification, but drank from pooled rain water.

But he made it out.

Mike

 

[HUNTER3897]

Kevin,
I didn't see it last night, but I saw it when it was originally aired. Heck of a story. He definately had the will to survive. We could all learn from that man. Most people would have given up after 48 hours. If he chimed in on one of the "Most important survival tool" threads I guess we know what his answer would be. I can vouch for the bug part of the story. The mosquitoes alone probably got half of his blood.

Take care, ( AND a Case Trapper)
Jim

 

[MichLee]

This reminds me of an incident that occured about 15 years ago. My wife was working as a nurse at a senior citizens rest home (sorry not sure of the politically correct term). Well it was early January, and a rather cold year at that most people who have been to Michigan in January can attest to this, but there was no snow as of yet. One older gentleman decided he needed a bit of adventure and got one of the exit doors opened and disappeared into the woods around 4:00 PM before any of the nurses could react. In short order it got dark, my wife called home, as did man of the other women, and a lot of volunteer husbands and the local Sheriffs department formed searh parties to find this man. For some reason (lost in the recesses of my memory) there were no tracking dogs. We spent the entire night combing the woods for this old gentleman, and it was a very cold night, it dropped below zero and there was real concern as the last time he had been seen he had been wearing slack, slippers, a polo shirt and a sweater. Not hardly winter weather attire. The next morning about 9:00 Am someone saw the toe of a slipper peaking out from under a huge pile of leaves and pine needles under the base of a pine. He was bustled out and taken back in. He was no worse for the wear, except a bit dirty. He had remembered training fomr when he was young. It was quite an interesting and luckily happy experience.

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Lee

LIfe is too important to be taken seriously. Oscar Wilde

 

[Michael Bennett]

Mr. Johnston had planned on venturing into the woods only 300 yards to get some cedar. Another valuable lesson: look back!

Mike

 

[Dan K]

Hi All,
Mr. Johnson, has some serious problems with short term memory loss. He is in the early stages of Alzheimers.
Regardless of cause of memory loss, the most recent memories go first.
There wouldn't have been a problem if his people had watched him closer. Having maps compass or a GPS wouldn't have helped. He got lost because of what was taking place in his head not a lack of skill.
I'm not surprised that it took so long to find him.
He was moving around in a confused state and those Ceder Swamps are a real jungle. There are lots of other people up here who don't have the problems that Mr. Johnson has that get lost in the swamps up here. I've helped to find a number of them in the past, myself.
Dan