[ARC5] 81 Days Below Zero

[Hubert Miller]

>Subject: [ARC5] 81 Days Below Zero
In the 1950's a USAF pilot was flying a T-33A over the Sierra Nevada mountains, had an engine failure, and punched out.  Searches found neither the man nor his airplane and finally they were called off, the pilot presumed lost.  Months later, in the spring, the pilot walked out of the wilderness.  He said he had found a hunter's cabin, which contained a rifle, and was able to survive the winter until spring.  Everyone was enthralled by his story of survival but then some began to question it, including the lack of aircraft wreckage.  As a result he left the USAF and was later killed in the crash of a light aircraft in the 1960's.  Finally, in 1978, a group of hikers found what turned out to be his ejection seat; the canopy from the airplane had been found a few years earlier.  He had not been lying.  They have never found the T-33.
>WayneWB5WSV   

I read about this too, i think it was in some now defunct militaria magazine in the 1990s. It seems this pilot was maybe less than fully truthful, because a forest fire that started up seemed to be associated with
his location, which he fully denied, altho it seemed all the facts were there. There was something about his relationship with his wife that wasn't going right either. Wiki has some information about this at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Steeves#:~:text=He%20is%20best%20known%20for,raised%20doubts%20about%20his%20story.

but i was very surprised to see how cursory the article is. It has an absolute minimum of the story as carried in the magazine article. I can't remember right now the name of the magazine either; i think it expired
somewhere in early 2000s, but it was a non - newsstand type publication but still of considerable thickness and with great nuts & bolts articles. I think i still have a copy or two around here that i was waiting to
give to a good home, rather than just donating to the Yachats town library as i usually do, where its appreciation may be in doubt.
-Hue Miller