Kennedy kept walking, falling, and getting back up, aware that both of their lives were now at stake. The pain in his leg became excruciating, and he didn’t think he could walk any farther. He started to panic. He thought about his children, his wife. He didn’t want to die on this launch complex. He shouted for help, but nobody answered. And then he told himself to shut up and walk.
In the distance, Kennedy spotted the flashing hazard lights of the pickup truck that Colonel Morris had parked near the gate. The truck was about a hundred yards away — on the other side of the fence. But it gave Kennedy a target, a goal, a destination to reach. Walking and falling, walking and falling, he got close enough to hear chatter on the truck’s radio.
The explosion had knocked over a section of the fence. Kennedy lay on top of it and rolled over it to the other side. He got to the truck and picked up the radio.
Colonel Morris and captain Short were sitting in the mobile command post, parked at the end of the access road, talking to Little Rock on the radio. The mobile command post was a pickup truck with two rows of seats in the cab and a camper shell over the back. They both heard a voice on the radio say, “Help,” and then realized it was Kennedy’s.
English and Rossborough jumped into the backseat of the truck, and it took off. Short was driving, Morris giving the directions. He knew exactly where Kennedy was.
The four men in the mobile command post were the last ones at the site who could retrieve Kennedy — and Colonel Morris looked like hell. Dr. Mueller and a medic, Reginald Gray, were in the ambulance on Highway 65, taking care of Hukle. Everyone else was apparently at the grocery store in Damascus, manning roadblocks or en route to the hospital in Conway. English was eager to go back and find this young airman. Rossborough seemed fearless, but this was only his second visit to a Titan II launch complex. His first, about fifteen minutes earlier, had been to rescue Hukle and Devlin.
Short navigated around a deep crater in the road and then stopped the truck. The road was blocked by the slab of concrete that had almost crushed Devlin. They found Kennedy in the battered pickup near the fence and carried him out. He told them that Livingston was still alive, somewhere on the complex, and then asked Short to do him a favor.
“Captain,” Kennedy said, “you have to call my wife.”
Short promised that he would.
Kennedy looked pale. His face was covered with blood. He was having trouble breathing. None of the men were wearing gas masks, and they could smell oxidizer in the air. They had to get Kennedy out of there before searching for Livingston. They lifted Kennedy into the back of the pickup and drove back toward the highway.
A security police truck came toward them on the access road. Short slowed down but didn’t stop. He stuck his head out the window and yelled, we’ve got Kennedy, Livingston is still on the complex, go down there and try to find him.
Roberts and Green had no idea who was in the truck, yelling at them. They didn’t know what Livingston looked like or where he might be. But they were willing to look for him. Green thought about his six-year-old boy, fast asleep at home, completely unaware of what his father was doing right now.
As they neared the complex, a large cylindrical object appeared in the road.
Well, damn, there’s the warhead, Green thought. He carefully drove around it.
Green stopped the truck, and they walked to the northeast section of the complex, looking for a way to get through the fence. They didn’t have a flashlight. Green climbed onto a light-all unit and tried to point it toward the fence, hoping to find a hole. It wouldn’t budge.
The light-all unit was attached to a Dodge Power Wagon, and Green had an idea: I’ll drive this big pickup right through that fence.
Green climbed into the driver’s seat. Someone had left the motor running. He put the engine into first gear and floored it. The truck smashed into the fence, but the fence held. He backed up and tried again — still, no luck. The fence was too strong, and the truck felt kind of sluggish. He got out of the cab and noticed that all four tires had been blown out by the explosion. It was running on rims.
