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DUGWAY PROVING GROUND — The father of a soldier missing since Sunday evening believes his son, Spec. Joseph Bushling, has met with foul play and that the car he was driving is nowhere near this sprawling Army base.
"I feel something has happened to him, some harm has come to him. Otherwise, he would have contacted us," Kevin Bushling said from his home in Arkansas.
Dugway sent a press release at mid-day Monday reporting the soldier was missing, and that he was driving a black 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer. He reportedly called another soldier at Dugway Sunday evening to report he had run out of gas and needed help. But there has been no contact with the soldier since, and Dugway spokeswoman Paula Thomas said no signs of him have been found.
"We feel confident we would have seen something if something was there," Thomas said Friday afternoon. She said the 13-square-mile proving ground has been searched three times, from the ground, by air from helicopters and unmanned drones.
Kevin Bushling said he first heard his son was missing the morning after the search began, and was not happy word came first from the Army in Colorado instead of Dugway. But Thomas said Joseph Bushling, a medic and ambulance driver, was assigned to Dugway from Fort Carson, Colo., and that's why the notification to the soldier's family came from Colorado.
Bushling said his son had just re-enlisted for another five years with the Army and was in his final days at Dugway before beginning training in Texas to become a nurse.
"Nobody is completely happy with the Army," Bushling said, but he sees nothing to suggest his son just ran off, a belief backed up by another soldier friend at Dugway who called Joseph Bushling's parents on Sunday, telling them he had scoured every road the two had explored together at Dugway.
"When they go out driving they call it 'backroading.' He told me 'I have been down every road we went down and then some, and there is no sign of the vehicle.'" The friend then gave Kevin Bushling and his wife, Lisa, more details to reassure them their son had not just run off.
"There is nothing from his room that is missing. Everything — all his clothing, he had a few firearms, those are in his room. Medication — everything is in his room. He took nothing with him but his clothes on his back," Bushling said.
The car belongs to another soldier at Dugway who is away on a temporary assignment, Bushling said. Joseph had agreed to take care of the car while the owner was away. Bushling and Dugway both said Friday the owner of the car has since reported it stolen, but indications are the report was made to begin an insurance claim, not because of any indication there was a falling out between Bushling and the owner of the car.
Joseph's only brother, Jeremy, committed suicide a year ago. "He left no note to my wife or I stating why he did it or anything," Bushling said, adding that Joseph "knew how much that hurt us, that we did not know the reason. … That's why I know if (Joseph) was able to get ahold of us, he would do it."
Bushling said he and his son planned a road trip to California, beginning next Wednesday, before Joseph started his nurse training in Texas. The father said he is still coming to Utah, "If for nothing else, to look for my son."
Thomas said Dugway Commander Col. William E. King IV agrees the soldier and the car he was driving are not on the Dugway range. "As of two days ago, he said he is 100 percent confident (Bushling) is not on Dugway Proving Ground," Thomas said the commander told her.
Are Dugway personnel still searching? "I don't know if you can ever say you're finished," Thomas said. "We feel confident we would have seen something if something was there."
Bushling said he hopes an active search continues. "It's been a year of grieving and trying to put things back together, and it's just like the whole thing is starting again. It's just awful," he said. "I just want them to keep looking."
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Story written by Steve Fidel with contributions from John Daley.
