Navy Seal trainee drowns during pool exercise, ruled homicide

[EvilDDS]

Saw this on the news the other day. Guess they had a training exercise where the trainee has to tread water in full gear in the pool. 21 year old guy was struggling and the instructors kept dunking him

Basic training for Navy SEALs is designed to be a grueling process to find the U.S. military's strongest fighters and turn them into an elite force able to dive into the world's deadliest places.

Seaman James Derek Lovelace, 21, was in his first week of the six-month program in Coronado, near San Diego, when he died May 6 during a pool exercise

The death raises questions about the safety of the strenuous training, which some argue is necessary to create warriors with missions like the one that took down Osama bin Laden. It opens concerns about where to draw the line between rigorous training to weed out the weakest and abuse that leads to deaths.

Link to article

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4091695-155/grueling-navy-seal-training-defended-questioned

 

[Brodels]

Wow I hope they are punished accordingly. But they probably won't be.

 

[My Spot]

He died during the first week of training and not Hell Week later on? I'm guessing some preexisting medical condition that was never caught.

 

[Rod1]

He died during the first week of training and not Hell Week later on? I'm guessing some preexisting medical condition that was never caught.

He could had simply panicked and the instructor was a retard.

 

[Kitafuji]

Imagine you are drowning struggling for air and some fuckhead is pushing you under water.
I grew up in socal at the beach and have been caught in some bad riptides, drowning is some scary shit.

 

[My Spot]

He could had simply panicked and the instructor was a retard.

Sounds like he literally died instead of quitting. RIP.
A CNN article said he wasn't a good swimmer. This should've been corrected at NSW Prep School before he even showed up for BUD/S. I believe it's 2 months long and nothing but swimming, swimming, and more swimming.

 

[ultramanhyata]

He died during the first week of training and not Hell Week later on?

No. He was killed in the first week of training.

By some gung-ho, redneck, "alpha" fucktard.

But I look at it this way...

If a soldier has taken the oath and is willing to die for his country, why does it matter whether or not he gets killed on the battlefield fighting his declared enemies or gets killed by his drill instructor during basic training?

As long as he fought valiantly. Which I'm sure he did.

 

[Bilbo Gaggins]

He died during the first week of training and not Hell Week later on? I'm guessing some preexisting medical condition that was never caught.

The victim could not simply have been trying to perform the damn exercise and was possibly struggling because he was not fully prepared for it first? dafuq are you even..???

 

[kflo]

No. He was killed in the first week of training.

By some gung-ho, redneck, "alpha" fucktard.

But I look at it this way...

If a soldier has taken the oath and is willing to die for his country, why does it matter whether or not he gets killed on the battlefield fighting his declared enemies or gets killed by his drill instructor during basic training?

As long as he fought valiantly. Which I'm sure he did.

what do you mean why does it matter?

he shouldn't have died. he didn't need to die. and someone likely deserves to pay for his death. why does it matter?

 

[Lonesome Crow]

Report says that he wasn't a very strong swimmer. How the hell did he pass the Physical Screening Test at the prep school?

 

[Chomsky Honk]

I was never in the military so I don't know the culture and the way things really operate during training, but when they show the underwater training these guys have to go through on TV that stuff is legitimately terrifying.

 

[AGGAMEMNON66]

Only the strong survive

 

[uncommon]

It says he had a contributing heart problem.

I dont want to sound cold hearted but this is what the kid signed up for.

If we hand out lollipops and trophies to remedy this incident it will be far more of a tragedy to the country.

The homicide doesnt mean a crime occured(instructor not facing charges) and i doubt the kid would want this politicized.

Move on...

 

[My Spot]

I was never in the military so I don't know the culture and the way things really operate during training, but when they show the underwater training these guys have to go through on TV that stuff is legitimately terrifying.

It's supposed to look terrifying. BUD/S (along with PJ indoc since those dudes spend a shitload of time in the pool as well) has close to an 80% attrition rate. Water is the great equalizer.

 

[My Spot]

It says he had a contributing heart problem.

I dont want to sound cold hearted but this is what the kid signed up for.

If we hand out lollipops and trophies to remedy this incident it will be far more of a tragedy to the country.

The homicide doesnt mean a crime occured(instructor not facing charges) and i doubt the kid would want this politicized.

Move on...

Something similar happened on Parris Island about a year or so before I went to boot in 03. A dude was getting smoked on the quarterdeck and just literally dropped dead from some kind of undetectable heart abnormality.
There was an NBA player for the Celtics back in the 90s who went out like a light bulb during practice.

 

[Sakuraba808]

Seals literally have a training session where they tie their hands behind their backs and the objective is to reach the end of the pool while coming up for one breath of air. He also has a history of asthma and he shouldn't have been in BUDs because thats an automatic disqualification for seals physical, he probably lied about not having asthma. Tragic event but seals aren't regular soldiers, there is a reason why 100 something people sign up for a class and about 15 to 20 graduate. People who know nothing about military training shouldn't compare these guys who literally do triathlons as morning workouts to regular joe off the street in army and marine basic trainees.

 

[My Spot]

Seals literally have a training session where they tie their hands behind their backs and the objective is to reach the end of the pool while coming up for one breath of air. He also has a history of asthma and he shouldn't have been in BUDs because thats an automatic disqualification for seals physical, he probably lied about not having asthma. Tragic event but seals aren't regular soldiers, there is a reason why 100 something people sign up for a class and about 15 to 20 graduate. People who know nothing about military training shouldn't compare these guys who literally do triathlons as morning workouts to regular joe off the street in army and marine basic trainees.

Yeah I'm wondering how he even made it through NSW Prep School.

 

[BruceLeeOnTRT]

If someone isn't a good swimmer, just cut them. No need to drown the guy.

 

[Krallang]

there's a big difference when someone a little chubby has a little bit of buoyancy and can use that to assist in swimming naked and when they are loaded in gear. I knew plenty of people who were passable swimmers but the moment they had boots, flak/helmet, rifle and rut they dropped like stones or had trouble with endurance.

Funny racist bootcamp story. I came from baltimore MEP's so my series had a decent portion of black people. Well when you get to the pool they ask if anyone can't swim go to the shallow end. Well all but 3 black people, like 20 in total start walking towards the shallow end. The swim instructors look at the 3 remaining black kids and they were confident they could swim. After a bit of harassment one admitted he couldn't swim. He then pushed the other 2 in the pool and one of them couldn't swim and he started floundering. The swim instructor threw him a buoy then proceeded to harp on safety and that he didn't give a fuck if u couldn't swim. His job was to teach you. After that 3 white kids walked to the shallow end.

I thought it was pretty hilarious at the time. Moral of the story, a lot of people lie about their abilities for no apparent reason.

 

[sloppypie]

I almost drowned the same way in high school. Treading water for an hour for training and my moron friend dunked me hard. I swallowed a bunch of water and sunk straight to the bottom of the pool. It took every ounce of strength I had left to swim up to the edge, and I almost lost consciousness.

Utterly terrifying way to die. I really feel bad for that poor bastard.