On August 11th, 1987, Lance Corporal Jason J. Rother joined the United States Marine Corps, a little

less than a month after turning 18.

Lance Corporal Wather was a rifleman,

assigned to Kylo Company, 3D Battalion, 2D Marine Regiment, 2D Marine Regime, Marine Division at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina,

and was taking part in Desert Warfare Training at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in 29 Palms, California.

On the evening of August 30, 1988, just over a year after joining the Marines, Lance Corporal Rother was dispatched by himself

along an isolated and forsaken trail as a guard and guide.

In an effort to lead the battalion's training exercises in the middle of the night,

he was dispatched on the final evening of a three-day-long fire training drill.

This night would have concluded the Battalion's Exercise Compendium.

It would not be until more than 40 hours later from the time Lance Corporal

Rother should have been picked up from his post. Yes, 40 hours had elapsed before anyone realized something

was a mess. And it wasn't even the fact that Lance Corporal Rother was nowhere to be found.

No, not that.

It would be an armory weapons inventory that was conducted late into the evening of September 1st, 1988

that alerted anyone in command that something was wrong.

Lance Corporal Rother's weapon was not accounted for. But where was Lance Corporal Rother?

He was missing. Where was

missing?

A massive search for Lance Corporal Rother was immediately launched.

1,758 people participated in the search effort,

and this included over 1,000 Marines on the ground searching on foot. They search from the air. Officials from the

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