NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
                           MORNING REPORT

To:        All National Park Service Areas and Offices

From:      Division of Ranger Activities, Washington Office

Day/Date:  Tuesday, May 28, 1996

Broadcast: By 1000 ET

INCIDENTS

95-400 - Natchez Trace (Mississippi/Alabama/Tenn.) - Follow-up on Rape

Last July, a 38-year-old woman from Tupelo was forcibly abducted and driven
to Old Town overlook, where she was raped.  Rangers, FBI agents and Tupelo
detectives investigated the incident and arrested two Tupelo men.  On April
16th, R. "C.D." O. was sentenced to 80 months in prison with
five years' probation for aiding and abetting in the kidnapping.  On May
17th, D.B., 35, was sentenced to life for kidnapping and rape.  D.B.
used a baseball bat to break into a Tupelo residence to demand payment for
crack cocaine.  He then abducted the woman.  [Tim Francis, ACR, NATR]

96-236 - Noatak (Alaska) - SAR; Suicide

On the evening of May 18th, the park was notified that a search was in
progress for H.J., who was on an extended hunting and trapping trip
in the park and had not been seen for three weeks.  The search involved
Alaska state troopers, the Northwest Alaska Native Association (NANA) SAR
team, the Civil Air Patrol, private individuals, hunting guides, and
pilot/rangers Richard Kemp (NWAK) and Joe Holland (BELA).  Evidence indicated
that H.J. had suicidal inclinations.  He told fellow villagers that he was
thinking about going to visit his friends who had committed suicide. 
Hangman's nooses were found at two of H.J.'s known camping locations.  He
also moved into a ranger station tent for a while, using up the propane and
heating fuel and eating the dry food stored there.  H.J. left his bed roll
behind at a nearby native allotment cabin, and headed off with only his
snowmobile, a .375 magnum rifle, a blue plastic tarp and the clothes he was
wearing.  During the search, a 15-year veteran of the SAR team committed
suicide at the base camp.  The search was temporarily suspended in order to
attend to this incident, then resumed.  Alaska state troopers have
coordinated the intensive air, boat and ground search, but will likely
suspend active efforts in the near future.  Native people have indicated that
they will continue searching for H.J..  [Jon Peterson, CR, NWAK]

                       [Additional reports pending...]

FIRE ACTIVITY

NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS LEVEL - Level II

LARGE FIRE SUMMARY

                                                                     %   Est
State      Unit                Fire          IMT     5/24     5/28  Con  Con

FL    Ocala NF               Major #1         --    3,147    3,149  100  CND 

NM    State                * Sawyer           T2        -      120   25  NEC

Heading Notes

     Unit --    Agency = BIA area; NF = national forest; RU = CA state resource
                or ranger unit; RD = state ranger district; District = BLM
                district; NWR = USFWS wildlife refuge
     Fire --    * = newly reported fire (on this report); Cx = complex; LSS =
                limited suppression strategy; CSS = containment suppression
                strategy
     IMT --     T1 = Type 1; T2 = Type II; ST = State Team
     % Con --   Percent of fire contained
     Est Con -- Estimated containment date; NEC = no estimated date of
                containment; CND = fully contained; NR = no report

FIRES AND ACRES BURNED

                NPS     BIA      BLM     FWS    States     USFS      Total

Number            0       7        4       1        35       20         67
Acres Burned      0       3       81       1       259      694      1,038 

COMMITTED RESOURCES 

               Crews     Engines     Helicopters     Airtankers     Overhead

Federal           50        61           12               6             70
Non-federal        0         2            0               0              8

CURRENT SITUATION 

Fire activity increased in the Southwest yesterday, but there was no
significant activity anywhere else in the United States over the three-day
holiday weekend.

NATIONAL OUTLOOK 

No significant fire activity is expected.

[NICC Incident Management Situation Report, 5/28]

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

No submissions.

OPERATIONAL NOTES

Reports pending.

MEMORANDA

No submissions.

EXCHANGE

Reports pending.

OBSERVATIONS

"National Park Service work is humanitarian in nature, philosophical in
purpose, and you might say cultural in impact.  In short, we're not dealing
with purely practical considerations.  Important though practice may be and
inevitable as problems may be, in the back of all this is a feeling of
humanitarianism...a philosophy.  We're dealing with people and with people's
happiness, we're dealing with people's needs."

                                    Sigurd F. Olson, from "Quotes:
                                    Conservation, Parks, Natural
                                    Beauty," DOI, 1966

Distribution of the Morning Report is through a mailing list managed by park,
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for the Morning Report to your servicing hub coordinator.

Prepared by the Division of Ranger Activities, WASO, with the cooperation and
support of Delaware Water Gap NRA.

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