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Torturous night cements friends, hero

Jan-21-2007 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

This is a pretty incredible story involving two Ft. Lewis soldiers, one of whom will deploy with the 4/2 SBCT this spring.

JOSEPH MONTES; The News Tribune

By the end, many bones were broken and there was a lot of blood on the canyon floor.

But Anthony Santi and JoAnna Theiss would be much closer because of their harrowing mountain survival experience.

It began when the pair of Army specialists from Fort Lewis set out for a trip to Mount Rainier. They planned to do some rock climbing at Paradise. They never arrived.

The farthest the two friends would get would be a pit stop at Christine Falls. It was there that Santi saved Theiss’ life while seriously injuring himself in the process.

The deed earned him recognition at a breakfast Friday hosted by the American Red Cross Mount Rainier Chapter. He and 14 other South Sound residents – one of them a dog – were honored for their acts of heroism.

Santi and Theiss’ adventure started when Theiss peered over the side of the canyon that Christine Falls runs into. The Army medic from Olympia wanted to climb down.

She thought the distance to the bottom was much shorter than the 35 feet it turned out to be. On the first step she lost her footing and vanished before Santi’s eyes.

“On the way down I remember trying to grab his hand and hitting the ground,” recalled Theiss, now 25. “It’s kind of like when you’re dreaming of falling. I remember a sudden stop and like I got hit really hard in the stomach. My whole entire body was numb.”

Santi yelled from the rim. Theiss didn’t answer, and he couldn’t see her on the canyon floor. Worried for her life, he tried to climb down but fell and landed awkwardly, breaking five bones in his left foot.

“It was an extreme pain, but it stopped the second I looked at her,” said the 28-year-old Stryker brigade soldier who lives on post at Fort Lewis.

Theiss lay scratched and bruised, a pool of blood around her head, both kneecaps busted, her right femur broken and bowing out in a U-shape. She was conscious, suffering stabbing pain, but remained calm.

Both say their military training is what saved them. They needed help, so Santi set out for the other side of the canyon toward a cliff that looked less severe. He hobbled across the creek at the bottom of the waterfall and began climbing.

Be sure to click through to read the rest of the story.


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