Wednesday, November 19, 2008 was a brisk, overcast day throughout much of the United States. As the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. 'victory tour' headed east toward the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont, the Patrick-Patrick team was heading east from Seattle toward the Bitter Root National Forest and Hamilton, Montana, where another group of homecoming soldiers would be honored. As Patrick Hamilton and Lynn Patrick piloted their lime-green busses into this desolate region of southwest Montana, the weather began turning sour. Snow squalls turned into an eight-inch accumulation, causing visibility to be reduced to near zero. Lynn and "Hammy" were in separate busses; Lynn's bus was being driven by an O.U.T.R.A.G.E. volunteer who had worked as a bus driver for Greyhound until he retired two years ago. He knew how to keep a bus under control in even the most adverse weather conditions. "Hammy" was driving the lead bus, and - as was par for the course - had been drinking beer, inhaling cigarettes, and smoking pot without incident. Suddenly, the blinding snow began to affect his vision, and his bus veered off the road just suuth of Missoula on Highway 93. The bus rolled down an embankment, coming to rest on its right side, which meant that the doors were buried in a slurry mixture of mud, snow and water. There was only one way out - and that was if the windows on the left side of the bus could be opened. The 'good news' was that no one was seriously injured. Hammy's bus was filled mostly with supplies and equipment, and only had twelve passengers aboard. Lynn's bus, on the other hand, had fifty-four O.U.T.R.A.G.E. passengers. Her bus came to a stop on the highway and the bus driver radioed for help as some of the passengers slid down the embankment to try and help the accident victims. It was steeper, and more treacherous, than it looked, and would-be-rescuers finally abandoned any ideas of trying to reach the dismantled bus until help arrived. A battalion of emergency vehicles, resuce workers, police, and firemen were soon at the scene. Still, it took almost two hours to rig ropes and get rescuers to the scene.
When firemen smashed windows to the bus, they didn't know what to expect. Thirteen dead or injured people? They were prepared for the worst, with stretchers, bandages, medicines, splints, body bags, and chain saws, ready to cut the bus open in order to get to the bodies. What they observed, instead, was complete unexpected - and completely "Hammy":
All thirteen passengers had survived with nothing more than scrapes and bruises. As firemen smashed the driver's side window open, Hammy lifted a brown bottle of Budweiser high in the air, saluted the rescuers, took a long puff on his doobie, and said, "Yeaaaaaaaaah! Hey, Bro, what's up?"
Hours passed before a rescue helicopter arrived to airlift the passengers to safety. The bus was totally demolished, and Lynn had already made arrangements for another tour bus to show up for Hammy and his twelve co-horts. Most of the equipment and supplies was savageable, and - after nine hours - everything had been loaded into the substitute bus and the Patrick-Patrick team was underway again. The tour bus company insisted, however, that Hammy not be allowed to drive; it provided its own professional driver. Hastily, a lime-green banner usually displayed behind the stage at rallies and events, was attached to the side of the coffee-colored bus so that it could be identified as part of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. entourage.
On the same day, Ron "Doc" Doctor's bus tour landed in Sullivan, Missouri, just southeast of St. Louis. Doc's troupe arrived without incident, and pulled up in front of a small Navy Club that had appropriately prepared for the event: outside in front of the building was a bank of thirteen "Cherry Masters" and seven cigarette vending machines, all being used by the small crowd of about four hundred people. In front of the machines was a small stage with nineteen folding chairs. From inside the building came eleven seamen who had, until ten days ago, been assigned to a U.S. battleship stationed in the Gulf of Aden, which was actually in Yemen waters. The ship had been on its way to the Arabian Sea, and then into the Persian Gulf, where its presence would put it in harm's way of the fighting going on in Iran and Iraq. When Colin Powell called for the return of all troops, the ship docked on the island of Socotra, a Yemen territory. U.S. cargo planes swiftly picked up those on board and returned them safely to the United States. The eleven seamen now in Sullivan, Missouri hailed from the greater St. Louis area. Doc had chosen Sullivan as the location for this celebration because it was virtually the same distance for each of the eleven men's home towns. The 'victory tour' was spreading all over the United States as American military men and women arrived home by the thousands. Jil called Doc and Hammy with the same message: "We've got a lot of ground to cover in the next few weeks. We're gonna be welcoming a lot of heroes home!" Meanwhile, other things were going on around the country that were of significant importance; it was an improglio of broad proportions.