No injured cavers recorded.
On 24 March three soldiers from Fort Leonard Wood, PFC. Stephen Lasky (20), PFC David Box (20) a d SP4 Alfred Purswell (21) signed out to go caving. None had had previous caving experience or training. When they became overdue (near noon) the Army instituted a search and found their borrowed car parked near Indian Cave. A tentative search by Army personnel found some of the men's clothing in the cave, but did not find the men.
The Provost Marshall's Office at Fort Leonard Wood contacted Jerry Vineyard of the Missouri Geological Survey, who in turn contacted members of the Missouri School of Mines Spelunkers Club. The first call was received at 1:15 p.m. 25 March. A rescue party of seven arrived at the cave at 2:45 p.m. Nick Tibbs had been appointed the rescue group leader. Lt. Williams in charge of Army operations at the cave, gave the rescue group full control of all operations in the cave.
The search party entered the cave at 3:00 p.m., divided into two groups to search various leads, and met again in a small room where a scarf had been found. One group then left the cave to request further assistance, while the other pushed into a low crawl. This was at 6:30 p.m. The three soldiers were found. unhurt, in a large passage beyond the low crawl. Rescuers and rescued were out of the cave by 8:25 p.m.
Analysis: A typical search and rescue operation. The lost men had, fortunately, not got into any serious difficulty and still had some light left in their flashlights.