There's a shear drop of over 5,100 feet from the top of El Capitan to the desert floor below. 200 miles southwest of there sat Fort Quitman, reputed to be the worst duty station in the U. S. Cavalry. Scalding hot in the summer, freezing cold in the winter, with a continuous wind that varied between 10 and 80 miles per hour, the fort was the home of rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantulas, coyotes, wolves, bobcats, mountain lions and an occasional rabid...