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Show Army Communication Reveals Saga Of Snow Battle by Western Chemica! On Friday, Jan. 14, Col. Patrick F. Powers, Commanding Officer, Western Chemical Center, U. S. Army, received a telephone call from Mr. Cook, a sheep-owner of Delta, Utah, requesting immediate aid in rescuing approximately 95,000 of his sheep which were located along U. S. Highway No. 6 from Delta, Uth, west to the Nevada Border. Mr. Cook stated that due to ice crust and drifts the available State and County equipment was inadequate to cope with the situation. He stated that the town was full of hay and fuel trucks which had been held for ten davs. equipment. Tractors form the best type of equipment to combat the deep snows as they have unusal strength and can operate continuously contin-uously under adverse conditions while the truck plows and rotary plows have to have favorable conditions, con-ditions, and the rotary plows, e-specially, e-specially, will not stand up under continuous duty." personnel, and Land Management officials. The main street was lined I with trucks piled high with baled hay and with feed-pellets waiting to get through to herds. We were about the first heavy equipment on the scene except for 2 rotary plows and started out early Saturday mor ning west on Highway US-6. Several Sever-al trucks followed close behind so that the road would not fill in with snow before they could get through, and at Marjum Pass we found 15-foot drifts which the rotary ro-tary plows were having trouble with due to the crust. We went a-head a-head of one of the plows, breaking break-ing up 'the crust for It, and cleaned out the Pass. Then afterthat, we continued west until we reached a large herd which was just north of the highway. We went almost to Cowboy Pass, and then stayed overnight at a sheep camp. Cowboy Pass is about 60 miles from Delta The trucks which were behind us got through just in time because the next day the wind blew and formed drifts all over again. ' "On Sunday we worked through Cowboy Pass and continued west almost to the Nevada line, breaking break-ing roads to three herds in that general area. We stayed at a sheep camp that night until $100 Monday morning. There was an automobile with o. family including some sick children stranded along the road. They wanted to get to Delta very badly and so we drove the tractor for the entire distance from there to Hinckley, about six miles west of Delta. There were several empty feed trucks that followed us also. The snow was bldwirlg so badly we went back over the highway to Marjum Pass that night with some more feed trucks and worked until un-til 0300 Tuesday morning, ending up back at Delta. We stayed in Delta only three hours, and at 0600 we went back on the highway breaking drifts for trucks going east and west wherever we found them. "On Wednesday the 19th, we started st-arted out at the intersection of US-6 and the Preuss Valley Road, 'about 35 miles west of Delta and worked south about half-way to the Black Rock Road. Three herds Iwere located and feed trucks fol-1 fol-1 owed the tractor. The going was bad and we didn't cover so many , miles that day. We made camp in !a sheep-wagon, and Thursday we ! finished the road to the Black Rock Road and returned to our campsite I that we had the night before. "On Friday we worked west and north from the campsite locating and breaking roads into several herds in the Sawtooth Mountains. The going was extremely rough and rocky and we covered only about 14 miles each way. We returned re-turned to the same campsite for I the night. The next day, Saturday, we were running short of tractor fuel so we took care of additional ' roads in the same- general area, while feed trucks which had been to their herds were gathering a- round us for the return trip to Delta. 1 "Sunday, Jan. 24th, we went north nor-th to the highway with the tractor and left it at the intersection, continuing con-tinuing east to Delta with the Dia- hiond-f which had six-wheel drive' and was equipped with chains. The procession of feed trucks followed us. Much of the road was covered with snow and the trucks could not have gotten backs to Delta without with-out our breaking through in front of them. We reached Delta about 1900 hours. "We talKed it over and decided that I would go back to W.CC to report what had been going on. make arangements for some supplies sup-plies and a vehicle for carrying tuel as we were always afraid of running out of fuel and getting snewed in with no shelter available. avail-able. So Monday I made inquiry at the Delta railroad station and alter considerable trouble on the part of the agent, permission was granted to have the through train leaving Delta about 0130 Monday morning stop at St. John to let me off. i "In general, the situation is about as bad as it has been reported in the papers. Several tractors belonging be-longing to a construction outfit west of Delta tire operating, and the State Road Commission has three or four truck plows. The rotary ro-tary plows broke down early in 1 the week and were sent back to Salt Lake City. There are many cases of hardship and suffering a-mong a-mong the equipment operators due , to the long hours worked and the extreme cold which reached about 30 degrees below zero at least once There is always danger of a mechanical mec-hanical break-down with no way of getting messages back to Delta, and several men have had to walk long distanres, abandoning Lt. Col. Warren S. Leroy, Executive Execu-tive officer, cordinated rescue arrangements. ar-rangements. He contacted Mr. A. K. Hnnsen, Agricultural District and Grazing District head at Nephi, Utah who confirmed the bad conditions con-ditions and stated that approximately approxi-mately 200,000 sheep had been isolated iso-lated in the Delta Area for ten days 1st Lt. J. O. Irvine, Post Engineer, was directed to send a heavy diesel tractor with an angle dozer to Delta Del-ta without delay. The equipment dispatched was operated by Mr. Walter Wilson and his assistant, Mr. Rial Berry. Following is' a report re-port of nine days battle by this Army crew to rescue isolated and starving sheep. This saga speaks .-for itself in illustrating an example JJf unstinted aid rendered by the J. S. Army to the sheep owners of Utah, in accordance with instructions instr-uctions issued by the Commanding General, Sixth Army. As reported by Rial Berry, Heavy Equipment Assistant, Jan. 24 1949: "We loaded the D-6 tractor in the low-bed trailer attached to the Diamond-T prime mover, on Friday 14 Jan. 49, in preparation to going to Delta, Utah, to help break snow clogged roads open for sheep res-' res-' cue work. Mr. Walter Wilson, heavy hea-vy equipment mechanic and operator oper-ator was in charge of the Western Chemical Center activities in Delta and I was to help him. We left Western Chemical Center in the afternoon of the 14th and arrived in Delta at 2330 hours. The trip to Eureka was difficult due to the size of the equipment we were transporting, but the large snow plow operated by Mr. Stookey accompanied ac-companied us to the intersection of State Highway 36 with US-6 at Eureka and we went on alone from there. "When we arrived in Delta we found the hotels filled with herd owners, State Road Commission |
