Quoted:
What was the Marine doing there?
How did he break his leg? Was it the dog that did it?
What did your father actually shoot at?
Why didn't the Marine answer the challenge?
Why didn't you both have long guns? What did you have?
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I'm sorry, some details were left out. The Marines were practicing covert HAHO insertions and movement. This Marine was blown way off course. In the past, the military had informed us of exercises in the area for just this reason
In fact, they had even asked us to help acting as unfriendly civilians trying to find them in our normal daily ranch work. Understand that we were not on or next to a military reservation. This Marine was way off course.
He broke his leg in the PLF (parachute landing fall).
Dad shot at an intruder that had already incapacitated a big dog and was not responding to repeated calls to surrender. Remember that this was on private land approximately one week after the rape and murder of a woman in the same area. We were all on edge after the DEA chief's warning of increased activity in our area.
The Marine did not answer as there was a covert element to the exercise. He had already called for evac and had marked his location with the strobe. Fom our side, we saw these actions, the radio and strobe as a possible drop of drugs with the drop zone controlled by BG's.
We were both armed with .357 S&W revolvers. At the time, we did not hav ay long guns available, a situation that was quickly remedied.