UT UT - Spc. Joseph Michael Bushling, 26, Dugway, 8 May 2011

[CuriousHousewife]

Has anyone been able to find any media reports to verify LB's claim that the car was found last night? I can't find anything.

 

[Lady LEO]

Has anyone been able to find any media reports to verify LB's claim that the car was found last night? I can't find anything.

Link: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...ife-in-search-for-missing-Dugway-soldier.html

Car found. Keys gone. No initial signs of foul play. Search expanding from vehicle location.

 

[SuziQ]

64 miles Southwest of the main gate? I don't think that is anywhere near the boundary of Dugway. ETA: corrected above because I got my NW and SW confused, sorry! ETA 2: I'm really confused and removed comment. Off for more coffee!

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...ife-in-search-for-missing-Dugway-soldier.html

(snip)
Kevin Bushling said he got a call Sunday morning about the car being found 64 miles southwest of Dugway's main gate. The director of the Dugway police department "told me he was assigning people areas" to search.

 

[MsFacetious]

“His iPod and GPS were in the car, but the keys weren’t in the car,” Kevin Bushling said.

“They said it had sort of slid off in a little ravine almost. They couldn’t determine if there was gas in the tank because they didn’t have the keys.”

Any footprints leading away from the vehicle were washed away in recent rains, he said, and there is no sign of foul play.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/51817520-78/bushling-dugway-vehicle-kevin.html.csp

 

[laytonian]

64 miles Southwest of the main gate? I don't think that is anywhere near the boundary of Dugway. ETA: corrected above because I got my NW and SW confused, sorry! ETA 2: I'm really confused and removed comment. Off for more coffee!

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/...ife-in-search-for-missing-Dugway-soldier.html

(snip)
Kevin Bushling said he got a call Sunday morning about the car being found 64 miles southwest of Dugway's main gate. The director of the Dugway police department "told me he was assigning people areas" to search.

Now that we know he had a GPS in the car: why didn't he use that to tell his friend exactly where he was?

"64 miles southwest of the main Dugway gate" is nowhere near "west of Granite peak" -- and sliding off the road is different than being out of gas.

 

[MsFacetious]

I think if they find anything else, we will likely see it on his facebook page before the news.

They are generally 3-4 hours ahead of the media on this case.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1584832832&sk=wall


He could have pushed the car off the road after it ran out of gas... to get it out of the way... It can be hard to steer and push at the same time. Just may not have gone where he wanted it to.

Oh and what do you mean they can't tell if there is gas in the tank because they can't start the car without the keys! You are telling me that the military doesn't have someone who can hot wire a car? Here, let me send my relatives over there! Does the owner have a spare key to the car?

How about attempting to pull gas out of the tank to see if there is any in there? Even if you unlock the gas door from inside... again, you have nobody that can get that open? It's the military!

Was it actually his GPS or did it belong in the car? Maybe he didn't know how to use it? Or maybe he was just confident he knew where he was and didn't think he needed it?

He really hadn't been here all that long... he probably didn't know the area as well as he thought he did. You know what they say about men and asking for directions...

 

[MsFacetious]

I don't have a good feeling about this... I fear that they may find him out there... otherwise he had to have someone assist him in leaving the area.

I am having flashbacks of Brandon Swanson here...

That was another case... where a young man called his parents to ask them to come get him. He had driven into a ditch and the car was stuck.

They were taking too long so he started walking. He told them where he was and he KNEW where he was, but when they went there he wasn't there. While on the phone with them he suddenly was just gone.

They did eventually find his car, about 25 miles from where he had been SO sure he was. He had been mistaken about his location.

His father believed he "slipped" while on the phone when he yelled... and may have fallen into the water. Dogs followed his scent to the river and it was late at night, in the dark.

His mother doesn't really think he went into the water... that he should have surfaced if he did. Dogs also led away from the river, down a desolate road. They are leaving open the possibility of foul play.

Dogs have consistently detected the scent of human remains but they haven't actually found any.

3 years ago yesterday... they are still searching but they still haven't found anything.

http://articles.cnn.com/2010-01-18/...e.swanson_1_searched-phone-father?_s=PM:CRIME

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64913&page=8

http://thesearchforbrandon.blogspot.com/

 

[KaylynnCouture]

Praying Joseph is ok.

 

[sophieness]

I think this story is exactly as appears. people who have training do not always have common sense. trust me. the weather has been mild. it has been raining. I PRAY that they find him soon, while he may still be alive. People commonly pull off the road when they run out of gas, your car starts to sputter so you do pull off, it has happened to me before once. GPS doesn't always tell you exactly where you are either, I've had those also, it will tell you the road name if you are on a marked road but not all rural roads are on gps and they won't always indicate exactly where you are if there are no distinguishing features on a very long road. what if he went offroading thinking he could get back by gps and was lost as well? he was west of granite it looks like- just very very far west, southwest. why call at all if you are going AWOL? who goes awol from nursing school? it would be such a tragedy for this family to lose another son. he could be a hundred miles in the middle of nowhere by now.

 

[Kat]

I think this story is exactly as appears. people who have training do not always have common sense. trust me. the weather has been mild. it has been raining. I PRAY that they find him soon, while he may still be alive. People commonly pull off the road when they run out of gas, your car starts to sputter so you do pull off, it has happened to me before once. GPS doesn't always tell you exactly where you are either, I've had those also, it will tell you the road name if you are on a marked road but not all rural roads are on gps and they won't always indicate exactly where you are if there are no distinguishing features on a very long road. what if he went offroading thinking he could get back by gps and was lost as well? he was west of granite it looks like- just very very far west, southwest. why call at all if you are going AWOL? who goes awol from nursing school? it would be such a tragedy for this family to lose another son. he could be a hundred miles in the middle of nowhere by now.

GPS doesn't always work out in the SW as it does in other parts of the USA. Just speaking from personal experience.

I also have had issues with using it in a large city here in HI where the streets are so close together the satellite appears to have some difficulty determining exactly where my car with the GPS is located---resulting in driving in circles for a good amount of time until I can get onto a fairly large mainroad and then it will pick up my signal from my car.

Here is another problem that I can think of in regard to his GPS use on a military instillation. Many times the roads on a military instillation especially the roads that are out in the range areas or lead into the training areas or remote areas of that instillation are not public knowledge (for a reason) they don't show up on GPS. In fact, the main roads on the instillation that I live on now are only shown and are designated on google maps as restricted access roads. The home I live in is just about 2 yrs old. I live in a new housing area and my street is not on GPS yet. I have to give directions to the pizza delivery guy once he gets to a certain landmark on post and direct him by phone to my home.

Just some food for thought about the GPS. HTH all just my experiences and humble opinion.

 

[laytonian]

GPS doesn't always work out in the SW as it does in other parts of the USA. Just speaking from personal experience.


I also have had issues with using it in a large city here in HI where the streets are so close together the satellite appears to have some difficulty determining exactly where my car with the GPS is located---resulting in driving in circles for a good amount of time until I can get onto a fairly large mainroad and then it will pick up my signal from my car.

Here is another problem that I can think of in regard to his GPS use on a military instillation. Many times the roads on a military instillation especially the roads that are out in the range areas or lead into the training areas or remote areas of that instillation are not public knowledge (for a reason) they don't show up on GPS. In fact, the main roads on the instillation that I live on now are only shown and are designated on google maps as restricted access roads. The home I live in is just about 2 yrs old. I live in a new housing area and my street is not on GPS yet. I have to give directions to the pizza delivery guy once he gets to a certain landmark on post and direct him by phone to my home.

Just some food for thought about the GPS. HTH all just my experiences and humble opinion.

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear.

GPS units work off latitude and longitude. Each has a way to display those numbers, and that's what he needed to tell his friend.

On a rental car, it was "where am I?" and on one of our Garmins, it's "show location". I've not played with our newer Garmins, but I'm sure it's there. It's the most basic feature of all. It works in the middle of parking lots, your backyard, unnamed dirt roads, etc.

In the early days of GPS road navigation, you had to put in the numbers (rather than the address)! Some RV parks don't even show an address on their web page - they just give you the coordinates. I hate that.

You're right that the roads in newer developments won't show up (but map updates are available - tell the pizza guy!).

The roads out in Utah's west desert are old roads -- and our Garmins (multiple) pick them up. Generally, if you can see it on Google Maps, your GPS has the information.

The roads within Dugway and the surrounding desert area, show up on Google Maps (Click Here to view) .

 

[laytonian]

I don't have a good feeling about this... I fear that they may find him out there... otherwise he had to have someone assist him in leaving the area.

(respectful snippage)

Check the comment from "cosmic bullets" here, under the Salt Lake Tribune stock (click here).

It IS strange to see someone just walking INTO town from there, because there's no "there" to be from....out there.

 

[sophieness]

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear.

GPS units work off latitude and longitude; I've never seen one that wouldn't display those numbers.

That's what he needed to tell his friend: the latitude and longitude.

On a rental car, it was "where am I?" and on one of our Garmins, it's "show location". I've not played with our newer Garmins, but I'm sure it's there. It's the most basic feature of all.

In the early days of GPS road navigation, you had to put in the numbers (rather than the address)! Some RV parks don't even show an address on their web page - they just give you the coordinates. I hate that.

You're right that the roads in newer developments won't show up (but map updates are available - tell the pizza guy!).

The roads out in Utah's west desert are old roads -- and our Garmins (multiple) pick them up. Generally, if you can see it on Google Maps, your GPS has the information.

The roads within Dugway and the surrounding desert area, show up on Google Maps (Click Here to view) .

he might not have been thinking that clearly...also sometimes I had technical issues with my garmin where it would say locating...locating...locating over and over again on really cloudy days. I had problems with my chargers too sometimes where they stopped working.
going awol and leading everyone on a massive desert search with a false phone call would make less sense to me, than simply going awol without the burden of leaving your car in the middle of nowhere. if you had a friend to pick you up, why not have them pick you up close by and off you go? we don't have any indication that I know, that he wanted to do such a thing...he wasn't headed off to war or anything.

 

[Kat]

Thanks Laytonian!

I wonder what his MOS was in the military, did I miss his job? If so I apologize.

Depending on his MOS he may or may not have worked with coordinates before.

Just puzzling out why if he had a GPS he was so lost. Not shooting down anyone's theories just playing around with possibilities

I've been thinking about him a bit, I have a soft spot for soldiers, esp. young ones. (it's the momma in me I can't help it!) and I hope and pray that for some reason he has disappeared through his own volition. I've seen a couple of cases where that has happened but I lived at Fort Hood when we lost a soldier out on the range too, it was in 2007 and he veered from his range of coordinates and became lost disoriented and lost his life. Very sad.

all JMHO

 

[sophieness]

(respectful snippage)

Check the comment from "cosmic bullets" here, under the Salt Lake Tribune stock (click here).

It IS strange to see someone just walking INTO town from there, because there's no "there" to be from....out there.

I had seen that. I'm not convinced it's him, it certainly could be, but we'll just have to wait and see. white male doesn't seem like much of a description to give an accurate identification. he will be found (hopefully) alive or no...I don't think this will become a long term case. that would be incredibly irresponsible to say the least, not to mention everything his family has been through. even though those events affected him as well I would think he wouldn't want tp put that kind of fear in them again since his brother committed suicide, their only other son.

 

[laytonian]

I had seen that. I'm not convinced it's him, it certainly could be, but we'll just have to wait and see. white male doesn't seem like much of a description to give an accurate identification. he will be found (hopefully) alive or no...I don't think this will become a long term case.

Agree.

I'm still thinking he'll be found elsewhere. The reported problem versus reality, and the location (versus where the car was found) sound like he may have been trying to mislead any search.

Why try to walk out of where the car was found? That'd be nearly hopeless, that far away.

 

[laytonian]

Thanks Laytonian!

I wonder what his MOS was in the military, did I miss his job? If so I apologize.

Depending on his MOS he may or may not have worked with coordinates before.

Just puzzling out why if he had a GPS he was so lost. Not shooting down anyone's theories just playing around with possibilities

I've been thinking about him a bit, I have a soft spot for soldiers, esp. young ones. (it's the momma in me I can't help it!) and I hope and pray that for some reason he has disappeared through his own volition. I've seen a couple of cases where that has happened but I lived at Fort Hood when we lost a soldier out on the range too, it was in 2007 and he veered from his range of coordinates and became lost disoriented and lost his life. Very sad.

all JMHO

He was a medic, but not previously stationed in a combat zone. He was due to transfer to nursing, which would be good training for the future.

He'd have had basic training.

Since the GPS was left in the car, I'm thinking it was his own unit and hopefully, he knew how to use it. Its history can be analyzed. Even if he didn't put in a destination, as long as it was "on" - it knows where you've been.

I'm hoping for the best here; desertion is almost the best option.

 

[Kat]

With his AWOL status if he did leave of his own volition that status is reported nationally and is accessible to all LE.

If he is pulled over for a minor traffic infraction and his ID is run it will come back that he is currently AWOL and he will be taken into custody, then the military will be contacted and the info will filter to his chain of command who will start the process to bring him back to his duty station (or to another duty station closeby and then transferred back) and an investigation as to why this happened will take place.

That's how I've seen it done in the past. Just sharing.

 

[Kat]

He was a medic, but not previously stationed in a combat zone. He was due to transfer to nursing, which would be good training for the future.

He'd have had basic training.

Since the GPS was left in the car, I'm thinking it was his own unit and hopefully, he knew how to use it. Its history can be analyzed. Even if he didn't put in a destination, as long as it was "on" - it knows where you've been.

I'm hoping for the best here; desertion is almost the best option.

I understand, but I wanted to share that my oldest son completed basic training in Jan of 2010.

Combat training took up the bulk of his training (weapons) and because of his MOS (powerhouse rep./aviation) his training didn't focus on some of the tactical training that say for instance that infantry, tankers and such get.

I don't think I can assume his training in the medical field would have put him in the position that he would have spent the same time as say an infantryman would have on being able to locate his coordinates while in the field or while out of the FOB in a combat situation.

I also think it's possible that his AIT would have focused on his MOS which is medical and would place him in a supporting position rather than a front line combat situation.

MOS for anyone that is unsure of what I'm referring to (guests here) is the job that one is assigned to do in the armed forces. Not all are combat related but a good many are support. Mechanics, water supply, communications, health field...etc.

He's junior enlisted and may not have had a lot of the training we assume that say a 10 yr or 20 yr member would have had the opportunity to have.

Not arguing, I hope against all hope that he's alive and out there. Boy I sure do! I'm saying a prayer for his Mom and Dad because this has got to be tearing their hearts up!

all jmho

 

[sophieness]

He was a medic, but not previously stationed in a combat zone. He was due to transfer to nursing, which would be good training for the future.

He'd have had basic training.

Since the GPS was left in the car, I'm thinking it was his own unit and hopefully, he knew how to use it. Its history can be analyzed. Even if he didn't put in a destination, as long as it was "on" - it knows where you've been.

I'm hoping for the best here; desertion is almost the best option.

second best! people really ruin their lives by going AWOL. it is much harder to get a job if they decide to give you a dishonorable discharge, it can stick with you for a long time. not to mention alienating his loved ones and manipulating everyone to spending so much time and money....first best is he is lost and nearby and they find him alive today or tomorrow?? I want to believe the best of people so that is my hope.