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Was that the class the African officer drowned on infil of PHIII???
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I was a Det Cdr in the 7th at that time and we had just returned from a trip to the SOUTHCOM AOR when we heard of that incident.
According to friends at SWCS, he was Liberian and landed fairly close (10-15') to the bank of a very small reservoir and drowned - they found him floating in his gear and the indications were he did nothing to try and get out of his equipment or try to get to shore. There were a couple of Liberians attending SFOC at the time and, according to the investigation, they were discovered to be animists and - in their case - fearful of water, believing there were spirits who would either take your soul or allow you to survive if you were in their world (water) - that it was of no value to struggle with them.
It sure caused Joe Lutz (JFKCMA CDR) and Gary Griggs and crew at SWCS to take a serious re-look at the foreign student program for attending SFOC/SFQC and was something we now took seriously as we were then undergoing a continuous rotation to/from Liberia.
And so it goes...
Richard
