2025.02.18
Location
East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
Northeastern Flores
Joint U.S.-Indonesian
Disaster Response Field Assessment Team
U.S. Component
U.S. Army Civil Affairs
Mission
Disaster Response Field Assessment
Team Size
Approximately 25 personnel total
Assessment Areas
Communications / Evacuation Routes / Terrain and Access
In the mountains about four kilometers from the excavation site where Mercer and her team were working, a joint U.S.-Indonesian team was assessing access routes for an explosive ordnance disposal team, communications status, and detour and evacuation routes.
Munitions believed to date from World War II had recently been found at several locations in the surrounding area.
The field assessment was being conducted in response.
Three four-wheel-drive vehicles traveled in single file along an unpaved mountain road toward the next assessment point.
A young officer sitting in the back seat looked out the window and said,
“The forest around here gives me the creeps. You’ve heard the stories, right? About the little green people.”
Another tall man in the vehicle laughed and looked out the window.
“Yeah. James mentioned it. Heard it from a local woman, right?”
The forest around them was so dense that it remained dim even in daylight.
Then the vehicle stopped.
A voice came from the driver’s seat.
“The GPS is acting up. Let me check it.”
On the screen, the position marker that had been on the road suddenly jumped far off the road, then the system lost its position fix entirely.
It was taking a while to reacquire satellite signals.
The tall soldier spoke to the driver.
“GPS again. One road. Just keep going.”
On volcanic islands, localized magnetic anomalies are not unusual, owing to magnetic volcanic rocks and subsurface geology.
In regions near the equator, ionospheric disturbances can also cause temporary instability in satellite positioning systems such as GPS.
The young officer continued.
“Let’s get out of here. I’ve got a bad feeling.”
“Right. Your hunches are so ‘reliable.’”
The tall man laughed and looked out the window again.