At 54 years of age, Wes Perkins had dedicated his life to serving his community.
He was the fire chief at the Nome Volunteer Fire Department for a while and helped out
with several local community groups.
An avid outdoorsman, Wes loved to get out of the house and hunt animals as early in
the year as he could, and in Alaska, that means spring bear hunting.
There is a particular strategy to spring bear hunting.
Bears emerging from their dens are extremely hungry and frequently feed on the nutritious
shoots and sprouts emerging from winter dormancy along the edges of melting snow.
Another source of food is for the bears to find animals who have died due to winter conditions.
This means that hunters who are pursuing these bears have to be very careful for animals
who may have scarcely made it through winter due to poor health, age or newly born young.
Perkins and his 2 hunting partners were following the tracks of a very large boar brown bear
in the snow from the convenience of their snowmobiles.
The tracks were impressive and showed that the bear was walking and running at various
points along the creek.
Perkins momentarily lost the bear tracks as the bear walked through a stand of brush too
dense for the man to ride through on his snowmobile.
Driving around the brush stand, Perkins stopped to rummage through his pack and get his camera
for a keepsake photo of the scenery.
Perkins stepped from his mobile and looked around to see if he could pick up the bear
tracks in the snow once again.
Unbeknownst to Perkins he had inadvertently driven past the giant brown bear, now hidden
in a snow cave about seventy feet behind him.
As Perkins glanced up slope for the lost trail, the beleaguered bruin took advantage of the
element of surprise and closed the distance before the man could defend himself.
Perkins heard an explosion of brush and snow crunching behind him and spun quickly to find
the source.
He glanced up to see the froth fling from the bear's angry lips and razor sharp claws
digging into the ice and snow to gain traction to fulfill its hostile goals.
His rifle was slung across his shoulders for easy travel as he realized he had to act.
He quickly began to spin his rifle around his shoulders and made it about half way before
the bear intercepted his defensive actions.
This 13 year old 8 foot tall boar was in the prime of his life meaning that he was an efficient
killer.
Wes was knocked off his feet as if a freight train had struck him.
The bear was on him seemingly before he hit the ground.
It was so fast that Wes had very few realizations as the attack commenced.
The bear immediately clamped his 12 inch wide bite across Wes’s face and locked on.
As the bear shook his head like a dog with a toy, the bones in Perkins' face cracked
like pottery on a tile floor.
The bear bit over and over.
Giant canines sliced through facial and scalp tissue as only the efficient design of mother
nature could conceive.
The bear not only bit down on Perkins face, but as it did it, it also lifted the man while
pressing him down to the ground with his paws and claws.
This shearing action left ribbons of flesh and bone hanging from the man's face.
Where his nose and sinuses once were, a gaping hole was left.
Wes could feel his energy fading and the pain was mercifully numbed by his adrenaline.
The only sensation he consciously processed was the cracking and crunching of his own
facial bones and skull.
***interlude for subs and likes**** Perkins' hunting partners, Edward and Dan
Stang, finally arrived at the attack scene as they were trailing Wes.
They immediately shot the enraged predator from over their friend and it immediately
fled the area to die.
The men approached their wounded friend and were immediately horrified at the condition
of his face.
The structure of his face was now completely missing and torn into a mass of blood, flesh
and bone fragments.
His identity no longer discernible and an overpowering sense of futility began to set
it.
Perkins' brother, Nate, who was part of the hunting party was asking him questions but
his mouth was now missing leaving him unable to verbally respond.
He was awake, and the men relied on him clenching their hands to signal them and relay information.
The men signed for help and administered life saving first aid to the best of their abilities
given the situation.
Helicopter Pilot, Ben Rowe, was aboard his craft and headed to the scene in a matter
of minutes.
Perkins was flown to Harborview Hospital, a Seattle area hospital then spent 5 days
in a medically induced coma.
He underwent 26 surgeries racking up over one million dollars in medical bills, but
he lived.
Doctors used his fibula to reconstruct his jaw and still had to use a titanium plate
to finish.
Both of his cheeks are reconstructed from titanium as well.
He had to consume food through a tube for months and can only see shadows with his left
eye.
He has only half of his tongue which makes understanding his speech difficult.
Wes still enthusiastically scribbles details and answers to questions from interested parties.
His attack site photo is linked below but IT IS EXTREMELY graphic.