George Singleton tells of a military mission to Ecuador in July 1987

George Buster Singleton

(For decades, local historian and paranormal investigator George “Buster” Singleton published a weekly newspaper column called “Somewhere in Time.” The column below, which was titled “Ecuador revisited once more,” was originally published in the July 17, 1997 edition of The Monroe Journal in Monroeville, Ala.)

Once in a great while I take leave from the happenings of our local county and venture through time and space to events that I have experienced elsewhere. This is one of those times.

Two o’clock on the morning of the 24^th of July 1987 came mighty early. This was the time that had been designated for the departure from our fair county to start an 18-day assignment in the South American country of Ecuador.

Our debarkation point was to be Huntsville. After what we thought was a tiresome bus ride and the joys of being processed for duty in the tropics, each receiving a couple of shots, and the do’s and don’ts and a lecture on how to act, we boarded a C-141 Transport and headed south toward Ecuador, the land of earthquakes and mudslides.

Just a few weeks prior to our arrival, an earthquake that registered 6.8 on the Richter Scale took place in the area that we were to go in. Over 1,000 deaths was contributed to this giant quake and the mud slides that followed in its aftermath.

Many trucks and buses, loaded with people traveling the narrow highway known as Baeza-largo-agrio, just simply disappeared, never to be seen or heard of again.

As the giant C-141 settled on the runway at Quito, the capitol of Ecuador, it didn’t take a kick in the head for our small group to begin to realize just how lucky we were to be Americans. Nothing that met the eye could compare with what we had just left at home a few hours earlier.

A quick change to a smaller aircraft, a C-130, and a 45-minute flight carried us ever closer to our destination at the head waters of the Amazon River and at the foot of the Andes Mountains.

The final leg of our journey was a five-hour overland trip over an unpaved and rocky road that was called a highway. The back roads of Monroe County seemed almost as expressways compared to this dangerous road. The 55 miles we traveled seemed as 500.

Our destination, the small town of Archidona, and our main base camp, sat on the banks of the Rio Hollin River. This would be our home for the next several days. Here we were in a land where the weather was hot in the daytime, and cold at night. The temperature ranged from around 120 degrees to around 70 when the sun dropped out of sight. The Army-issued sleeping bag was a most welcomed piece of equipment around midnight.

Life expectancy in this area, we were informed, was about 42 for the female population and about 38 for the males. Malaria, worms and many other parasites was the major causes of death. Venomous snakes was also a great factor to be reckoned with.

Ecuador was not all mud slides and earthquakes. The early morning view of the Reventado volcano was most beautiful to behold. The morning clouds that rolled over the Andes Mountains as great pillows, reminded one that even here God was not asleep. His majestic works was to be seen and enjoyed by all who took time to notice.

As I watched the towering peaks of the mighty Andes, many thoughts passed through my mind. I thought of the many thousands of years that had passed and the many who had stood in the same place where I was standing, and gazed in awe at the endless beauty that lay before me. Standing there I wondered, too, about the many primitive people who was probably at that very moment, looking down from their places in the mountains and wondering about our strange activity along the river.

As strange phenomenon occurred when I saw the mighty Andes. I felt that somewhere in time I had stood there before and witnessed this spectacle of creation. And here in a land where death is a constant companion, it seemed that I could look beyond the distant peaks, and somewhere in the unknown regions of the mind, the thought of dying and passing from this world didn’t seem as frightening as before, and wondered if over the past thousand years or so if any who had passed this way had felt as I did.

The days and nights that was filled with heat and cold, rain and mud, snakes and parasites, passed quickly. The morning came when I took my final look at the mighty volcano towering in the distance. And to the east, the Andes, standing silently, the white clouds rolling around the lofty peaks. I knew the time had come to say farewell.

As I shook the hand of my Ecuadorian friend that I had made, the words, “Adios Amigo, hasta la vista,” was slow in coming. Until we meet again, could well mean forever. I felt within my heart that I would never return…

(Singleton, the author of the 1991 book “Of Foxfire and Phantom Soldiers,” passed away at the age of 79 on July 19, 2007. A longtime resident of Monroeville, he was born to Vincent William Singleton and Frances Cornelia Faile Singleton, during a late-night thunderstorm, on Dec. 14, 1927 in Marengo County, graduated from Sweet Water High School in 1946, served as a U.S. Marine paratrooper in the Korean War, worked as a riverboat deckhand, lived for a time among Apache Indians, was bitten at least twice by venomous snakes, moved to Monroe County on June 28, 1964 and served as the administrator of the Monroeville National Guard unit from June 28, 1964 to Dec. 14, 1987. He was promoted from the enlisted ranks to warrant officer in May 1972. For years, Singleton’s columns, titled “Monroe County history – Did you know?” and “Somewhere in Time” appeared in The Monroe Journal, and he wrote a lengthy series of articles about Monroe County that appeared in Alabama Life magazine. It’s believed that his first column appeared in the March 25, 1971 edition of The Monroe Journal. He also helped organize the Monroe County Museum and Historical Society and was also a past president of that organization. He is buried in Pineville Cemetery in Monroeville. The column above and all of Singleton’s other columns are available to the public through the microfilm records at the Monroe County Public Library in Monroeville. Singleton’s columns are presented here each week for research and scholarship purposes and as part of an effort to keep his work and memory alive.)