Parting shots

60th MSG Chopped Competition

ABOVE: Reginald Barkus, 60th Force Support Squadron food service cook, adds parsley to a mixing bowl at Travis Air Force Base, March 23. The 60th Mission Support Group Monarch Dining Facility hosted a cooking competition showcasing skill, speed and ingenuity. Teams of four competed to transform mystery ingredients into the main course and dessert dishes to present to a panel of judges. TOP RIGHT: U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Cynthia Li, 60th Force Support Squadron food service journeyman, fries up sausage during a chopped competition at Travis Air Force Base, March 23. TOP MIDDLE: Reginald Barkus assures food is kept at a safe temperature before serving at Travis Air Force Base, March 23. RIGHT: Team Two of the Mardi Gras themed chopped competition face the judges at Travis Air Force Base, March 23.

Heide Couch/U.S. Air Force photos

Attack

From Page 11

herd, trying to maintain silence and stay upwind from their position. At one point we looked up to find that the elk were completely hidden from view. The landscape full of alders and tall grass had obscured the herd of massive animals completely. I felt we may have lost them for good. We had nearly given up, when we stumbled to the top of a bluff and found ourselves nearly face-to-face with a huge bull elk, its antlers stretched out like massive branches on a tree. The howling of the wind made my eyes water as I gauged the shot. I had only seconds before the elk would move out of sight or smell us and bolt.

As the shot rang out across the valley, the large animal weighing about 1,200 pounds fell forward and down the adjacent valley wall. Relief hit me as I saw that it had not gone over the edge of a cliff face a few yards ahead of it. The difference of a few feet would mean potentially many more hours of labor, packing hundreds of pounds of meat up the steep ravine. We spent the next hour making our way the short distance across the valley to where the elk lay. The huge animal could not be moved by the two of us, so we cut branches and small trees out of the way to access it and began the process of processing the meat and packing it back to camp. We had had great luck by managing to kill an elk on only our second day on the island, however the difficult part was about to begin with many hours of trekking to and from camp with heavy backpacks full of elk ahead.

Early the next morning, we headed back. We needed to use all the available daylight, and then some, to get the meat processed, back to camp, and hung in a nearby tree and away from potential scavengers. In Alaskan winters, food is scarce and bears and wolves will travel miles to find food.

As we crested the valley and headed down toward the patch of alders where we had left the remains of the elk the afternoon before, something wasn’t quite right. The bright white game bag tied to a branch to mark the spot where the elk had fallen was missing. I had hung the bag high enough that it could be seen over the trees from the top of the valley.

“Was it the wind or a bear that knocked it down,” I wondered aloud. “I guess we should be ready for anything.”

About 75 yards from the elk, I put a round in the chamber of my rifle, and we began talking loudly to ensure that any scavenging wildlife would hear us coming. Fifty yards from the kill, we reached a small meadow, and I was relieved to be able to walk more comfortably again in the tall grass. Birds chirped, the wind slowed, and I took in the natural beauty around me.

The stillness of the moment was broken by the cracking of branches like firecrackers and a low growl. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a grizzly, barreling towards me, less than ten yards away. Its ears were back, head low, charging through alders as if they weren’t there. By the time I turned my body to fire my rifle, the bear had reached me. A paw reached out, and I was airborne and spinning. I landed face down, my rifle beneath me. A paw pressed my back, the metal frame of my backpack bowed under the bear’s weight as I lay helpless in the grass.

Photo courtesy of Senior Airman Brady Penn Steve Penn, a resident of Kodiak Island, climbs a hill on Afognak Island, Alaska, on Oct. 13, 2021.