Carter Roy

The odd thing is, 23-year-old Lieutenant David Steves was supposed to be dead.

54 days earlier, his T-33 training jet left Hamilton Air Force Base

disappeared.

The military searched for him and his plane, but they came up empty.

So they mailed his mother a death certificate.

But now that he was suddenly back and alive, David recounted his story.

During his last flight, part of his plane exploded out of nowhere.

Luckily, he ejected himself before it fell out of the skies.

Unluckily, when he landed, he sprained both his ankles.

With no way to call for help, Steeves had to crawl throughout Kings Canyon for 15 days.

He found an abandoned cabin with some leftover food and hunting supplies.

Thanks to those, he was able to survive until he was strong enough to leave and find those campers.

A heroic tale that the U.S.

Air Force found fishy.

when David's plane never turned up.

They accused him of selling it to enemy forces.

Due to a lack of proof, he was never charged.

However, he was forever deemed a traitor.

He spent the rest of his life looking for the T-33 wreckage to clear his name until he died in 1965.

in a plane crash.