Real survival stories that inspire you!!

[Paul Leeks]

for me it would have to be:

Andes survivors (would I have done the same thing,Yep!)
Shackleton(Antarctica)

thats what I call living on the edge!

Paul

[slang]

Well, I was on this ship, the S.S. Baut, and.. :razz:

Somehow I'm always attracted to stories about people surviving on small tropical islands. Perhaps I need a vacation. :)

[Joe Boy]

for me it would have to be:

Andes survivors (would I have done the same thing,Yep!)
Shackleton(Antarctica)

thats what I call living on the edge!

Paul

That Shackleton was one unbelievable dude. Talk about living on the edge!! That guy was on the edge hanging onto the top of the cliff with one finger as someone was stepping on it. Simply amazing . . .

[sarongsong]

Real survival stories that inspire you...:lol: :lol: ...yours! :)

Okay, okay; that guy who cut off his arm that got trapped under a desert boulder, with a pocket knife.

[Paul Leeks]

I think I survived here amazingly! next time I'm out for good..so I have try to behave!

PL

[slang]

I think I survived here amazingly!

Now that was funny. Excellent sense of humor there Paul, I like it! :clap: :clap: :clap:

[KaiYeves]

That Shackleton was one unbelievable dude. Talk about living on the edge!! That guy was on the edge hanging onto the top of the cliff with one finger as someone was stepping on it. Simply amazing . . .
I agree!

[novaderrik]

Jon McCain.. that guy went thru hell for 5 years, and is still dealing with the physical and mental issues that came from it.
other than that, well, let's just say i'm not a fan.

[sarongsong]

I think I survived here amazingly!Now that was funny... :clap::lol: ...funnier is not just here... http://www.bautforum.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Gemini]

Basher 5-2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_O'Grady
I read his book back in 8th grade.

[HenrikOlsen]

The Donner party.
They inspire me to make sure the manual I'm going to stake my life on is written by someone who actually knows what they're writing about.

[geonuc]

I'll nominate Slavomir Rawicz's ordeal - he escaped from a Soviet camp in Siberia (in the winter), headed south, crossed the Gobi (in the summer, I believe) and then crossed the Himalaya into India.

He wrote a book entitled The Long Walk, which ironically garnered attention mostly because of his account of seeing a Yeti-like creature in the mountains.

http://www.amazon.com/Long-Walk-True-Story-Freedom/dp/1558216847

[Ilya]

The Donner party.
They inspire me to make sure the manual I'm going to stake my life on is written by someone who actually knows what they're writing about.

Except OP asked for real survival stories. The Donner party is a non-survival story.

[Larry Jacks]

My uncle Paul was captured in December, 1950 during the Korean War. The story of his capture used to be available online because NBC News did a "Profiles in Courage" segment on him about 10 years ago. Sadly, I can't find it any more.

In short, Uncle Paul was a medic working with a surgeon at a battalion aid station when the Chinese invaded. Their position was soon overran and they were captured. The prisoners were forced on their knees and the enemy was about to execute them when a Marine Corsair pilot saw what was happening. He began straffing around their position. Uncle Paul said the sound of .50 caliber bullets hitting the ground near then was like that of horse stomping their feet. The Corsair pilot radioed to other planes in the area and they began circling the men on the ground.

The surgeon pointed at the Corsair and said, "See that plane. It's being flown by a friend of mine. If you shoot us, he's going to drop napalm on you."

The guard said, "We'll just wait until night and kill you then. Fortunately, they were turned over to other enemy soldiers and forced to begin walking north. It was bitterly cold and prisoners began dying of exposure. Uncle Paul said that he had to bury an average of 30 men every day.

He survived 2 1/2 years as a POW. After the war, the surgeon was assigned to San Diego. He struck up a conversation with a neighbor and they began talking about their experiences. It turned out the neighbor was the Corsair pilot. Needless to say, they became fast friends.

Uncle Paul is in failing health now but to this day, he can hardly talk about the experience to anyone who wasn't there. In all my life, the only times I ever heard of his experiences were once at a family gathering and on that NBC News segment. His story of survival might not rank up there with Shackleton's but it impresses me none the less.

[cosmocrazy]

What about John Rambo? Jees... he's still at it at over sixty! :lol:

Seriously though... it is amazing how some people become almost superhuman and do some amazing feats (physical & mental) just to survive!!

It makes you wonder about one's self and how you would personally cope in such situations! :)

There is a story just in about a 3 yr old girl that got sucked into a 2ft wide storm drain dragged along for 200ft then hurled into the river at the exit and survived! I realize that it is luck that saved her but its still amazing some of the ordeals people go through and survive.

[BISMARCK]

Vesna Vulovi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vesna_Vulovi%C4%87)

[KaiYeves]

Shackleton's friend Douglas Mawson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Mawson) was pretty awesome, too.

And you can't forget Apollo 13.

[David B]

Nansen rivals Shackleton.

When, after more than one year in the ice it became apparent that Fram would not reach the North Pole, Nansen, accompanied by Hjalmar Johansen (1867–1913), continued north on foot when the Fram reached 84° 4´ N. This was a daring decision, as it meant leaving the ship not to return, and a return journey over drifting ice to the nearest known land some five hundred miles south of the point where they started. Nansen and Johansen started north on March 14, 1895 with three sledges, two kayaks and twenty-eight dogs. On April 8, 1895, they reached 86° 14´ N, the highest latitude then attained. The two men then turned around and started back, and did not find the land they expected at 83°N (it did not exist). In June 1895, they had to use their kayaks to cross open leads of water, and on July 24, they came across a series of islands. Here they built a hut of moss, stones, and snow, and wintered, surviving on walrus blubber and polar bear meat. In May of the following year (1896), they started off again for Spitsbergen. After travelling for a month, not knowing where they were, they happened upon the British Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition (led by Frederick George Jackson) whose party were wintering on the island. Jackson informed them that they were in fact on Franz Josef Land. Finally, Nansen and Johansen made it back to Vardø in the north of Norway

David B (has a soft spot for captain Bligh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bligh)

[Romanus]

Deborah Scaling Kiley's Albatross, which was made into both a movie and a documentary on the Discovery Channel. She was one of the five survivors of a yacht that was lost in a storm, and were never reported missing. One died of gangrene from an infected wound, and the other two went crazy from drinking seawater and--accidentally?--killed themselves. As many stories turn out, they were basically found by luck.

And let's not forget Apollo 13 or Sobibor...

[HenrikOlsen]

Except OP asked for real survival stories. The Donner party is a non-survival story.
It's (amongst other sub stories) the story of 15 people, 10 men and 5 women, who took off in the hope of reaching other people to tell about the rest of the group.
Of the "Forlorn Hope" group (who where the ones who resorted to cannibalism to survive while trapped by a blizzard) 7 of the original 15 (2 men and 5 women) got through to inform locals of the rest of the part that was still trapped.
It is a survival story.

[jfribrg]

I've read numerous holocoust survival stories. Each story is unique and in almost all cases involves a huge dose of luck, but it amazes me how anyone can persevere in such hopeless circumstances.

The Donner party is perhaps inspiring once they were in their predicament, but don't forget that they caused it themselves. All the other wagons that year went by an established tried-and-true trail and arrived safely. Yes luck went against them with an early season blizzard, but they didn't need to go by a different route. The lesson is that sometimes thinking outside the box doesn't benefit the organization.

Then there is me passing my Operations Management class in college. I still don't know how I managed to pull that one off.

[Argos]

I think I survived here amazingly!
PL

Not quite.

[HenrikOlsen]

The Donner party is perhaps inspiring once they were in their predicament, but don't forget that they caused it themselves. All the other wagons that year went by an established tried-and-true trail and arrived safely. Yes luck went against them with an early season blizzard, but they didn't need to go by a different route. The lesson is that sometimes thinking outside the box doesn't benefit the organization.
Which is what I said in my first post about them.

[KaiYeves]

Welcome to BAUT, David B!

Yeah, Nansen kicked butt.

[Ilya]

How is this for a survival story:

Autism may have helped the boy survive at sea (http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/10/rescue.at.sea/index.html)