Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
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  |
the Liberian officer had failed the initial swim test, drowned in PH1 on the slide for life, spent a couple days in Womack and they had put him back in the course and never told anyone that he could not swim. On the infil the JM did not put the students in water wings for some reason. The JM then released the students early (VGMR drop)and they landed short of the DZ. We found him submerged about 15-20 mintues later. The Sr NCO who signed off on the initial swim test was then part of the investigation team. To say it was a botched investigation and bigtime coverup later is an understatement. Lutz had just gone thru Katie Wilder. I know too well.
They initially blamed 4 people and mostly on misinformation and wrong jobs. Then when they discovered they had charged the wrong ones, moved the correct offender to Corps (west pointer), dropped charges and tried to cover it up. I had just taken over as the PH3 Ops Off at Maj Howard's request 2 weeks prior. One my Sr NCOs who pulled staff duty practiced his trade craft, opened the Bn Commanders safe and copied all their documents which showed the clear cover up and provided copies to the defense lawyers. Interesting meetings were held with Gen Lutz as how to proceed to not have another Katie Wilder and make it look legit.
I had worked with Howard in PH1 as his Ops Off with SFC Sharp and crew. One of the funniest stories was on a shakedown of the first combined Off/Enlisted class, they had found a map of all the land nav points in a SSG's pants. If you remember, we gave you the points you just had to get there.
I had been watching from about 100 yards. The SSG was Ranger and a Plt Sgt in the 82. When I told him he was going to have to see Maj Howard he started to cry and said, " Request permission for the TACs to take me down in the woods and beat the sXXt out of me. I won't even fight back". That did not happen and he got his one on one with Maj Howard who ate his butt up. Howard stayed on him the whole class but he survived and graduated.
The officers in the first combined class thought they were "exempt" from guard duty for a couple days until we "inspired" them to think differently.
Anyone have the opportunity to watch "HBO" with SFC Sharp in the TAC shack?