02:37 PM CDT on Thursday, August 4, 2005

By LINDA LEAVELL / DallasNews.com

High-tech equipment intended to aid the search for a Dallas man who has been missing near Mount Everest for two weeks was expected to be shipped Thursday to the U.S. Embassy in Nepal.

“It’s kind of up to the searchers to take this equipment and go find us a young man,” said John Seibert, U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions’ 32nd District director.

Trevor Stokol, 25, was last seen July 22 on what was to be a brief hike to take photographs of the mountain. After he did not return, his traveling companion and others began looking for him, then reported his disappearance to U.S. authorities in Kathmandu.

Seibert, who has been assisting the Stokol family, said a local office of L3 Communications made the equipment available after efforts to get classified thermal imaging equipment to Nepal fell through.

“The heroes are L3 because once I called them up and said, ‘All right, guys, this is my issue and my problem, I need plan B’ … they scrambled and put it together for me,” Seibert said.

A spokesman for L3 was not immediately available for comment.

Stokol’s family members in Nepal helping with the search have asked that the equipment not be described in detail because of the civil unrest in that country.

“There might be some political misunderstanding if there is technology moving to Nepal. One or the other side may perceive that as a threat,” Seibert said. “Not for recovering a young man.”

He could say that the equipment was not considered classified, so it did not need a special permit to leave the country, unlike the original thermal imaging equipment.

“After the 15th, it does become classified and the custody trail of it is established and it must come back,” he said. “Once it becomes classified, then we have to establish where it is and who has it and get it back.”

After eight months of travel across India and Southeast Asia, Stokol was days away from returning to North Texas to enter the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He is a 2002 graduate of Emory University.

At the request of Stokol's family, the 1st Special Response Group, a nonprofit, international search and rescue team, has become involved in coordinating the search efforts.

A fund to offset some of the expense associated with the extensive search has been established. Tax-deductible donations may be made to 1SRG, Trevor Stokol Fund, P.O. Box 230, Moffett Field, Calif., 94035.

E-mail lleavell@dallasnews.com