Death on Land Nav course

[sg1987]

I wonder how this happened....

Searchers Find Corpse of Soldier Who Disappeared During Training Exercise at Fort Hood
Wednesday, June 13, 2007



FORT HOOD, Texas —

Searchers found the body late Tuesday of a sergeant who disappeared for four days after during a training exercise, an Army spokeswoman said.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,281532,00.html

[Ret10Echo]

It bothers me that they had to throw the last line in concerning his deployment schedule...that is just unsat.

Seems that if they spoke with him by cell phone they should be able to pull the location information off of the tower(s) depending on the Phase-II deployment in the area.

[longjon]

I do not wish to sound as if I am armchair QBing the cadre there. I also understand that there are guys here who have boots with more land nav time than I do. I also am not judging SGT Sprader in any way. RIP brother.

I know that I don't have all of the facts surrounding what happened. But, as someone that has run plenty of both land nav and terrain association courses, I wonder how this happened.

If this guy couldn't find his points and was, apparently, having a hard time getting himself from point A to point B, what made the OIC/NCOIC think that SGT Sprader would be able to find his way back to the start point? Failsafes and panic azimuths are great but I have personally seen a Ranger incapable of maintaining a 90 degree magnetic to intersect a hardball road and await pickup by my NCOIC during EIB testing. Why? Because he was a heat casualty and his brain housing group was not FMC.

I'm not privy to the cell phone conversation that SGT Sprader had with the OIC but, I can't think of anything he could have told me, two hours after the course had ended and so far away that he couldn't hear the horns blasting, that would have convinced me to allow him to continue the course. I would have to assume that there were very real reasons why the guy was lost and that it was my responsibility to make sure that he gets back safe for a debrief and retraining.

I know I'll run more land nav courses so I am very interested in the sage advice of those here who have more experience than I do. As we await more details, do we chalk this up to the fact that what we do is dangerous? Or, do we learn from it and do whatever we can to make sure that things like this don't happen again?

[Team Sergeant]

This is not the first time (or the last) a soldier has died on a land navigation course.

If everything we did in the military was as safe as eating breakfast at mom's house, we would not be an effective military.

What we do is inherently dangerous, making the training "safer" is the common knee jerk reaction, and one I'm personally sick of....

We do not train Boy-Scouts, we are in the business of training fighting men and women.


Rest in Peace SGT Sprader.

Team Sergeant

[blue02hd]

"I do not wish to sound as if I am armchair QBing the cadre there. I also understand that there are guys here who have boots with more land nav time than I do. I also am not judging SGT Sprader in any way. "

Maybe we should wait to see what the medical assessment of the cause of death turns out to be before we start weighing in. It maybe something as simple as a bee sting,,,

Before we hang the instructor, lets see what the facts are.

CNN may call this a suicide. Gotta love the media,,,,

[Smokin Joe]

RIP Sgt Spader

FWIW,

Having coordinated and conducted a few civilian SARs I will offer that cell phone companies cannot triangulate a cell phone signal. I coordinated a SAR last summer where I talked to a kid on his cell phone before it went dead. His phone was hitting a tower 56 miles away. We constantly run into the issue of being able to talk to someone on their cell phone with out finding them.

[Ret10Echo]

RIP Sgt Spader

FWIW,

Having coordinated and conducted a few civilian SARs I will offer that cell phone companies cannot triangulate a cell phone signal. I coordinated a SAR last summer where I talked to a kid on his cell phone before it went dead. His phone was hitting a tower 56 miles away. We constantly run into the issue of being able to talk to someone on their cell phone with out finding them.


And that is why the FCC is going to have to change the accuracy requirement for E9-1-1. That is IF the receiving PSAP has the ability to receive and process the data.

[BMT (RIP)]

Fort Hood Soldier Died of Hyperthermia

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281532,00.html

BMT

[Gypsy]

RIP SGT Sprader.