Training Day Gone Horribly Wrong

Our first year swimming in the Blue held a lot of new experiences for us.  Some were the comical bloopers of new arrivals into a unique society while others were difficult, and painful, opportunities for growth.  The tumultuous atmosphere of the military forced us to grow swiftly.  Fore either you grow stronger or you fall.

The military, as a culture, has team building days.  These events are structured to foster physical readiness, leadership abilities, and cohesiveness as a group.  My engineer's first Training Exercise Day ended tragically, forcing both of us to see just how quickly everything could end.

The obstacle course everyone was working through that day was both challenging and dangerous.  While Blue had not had a casualty on the course in the past, the possibilities were strong that it would, eventually, happen.  My engineer had gone through the course in the past with the squadron.  

I remember the day that he worked through that course the first time.  He came home, proud of what he had accomplished, walking a bit taller.  I remember how he off-handedly mentioned how one team member refused to participate in one section of the course, out of concern for safety.    Having never seen the course myself, I asked why.  This portion of the course involved a 30 foot climb straight up, a swing over the top, and the a straight down descent on the other side.  Upon hearing that, I looked at my engineer a little differently.  Not proudly, mind you.  More like very concerned for his sanity.

When my engineer told me that they were hitting the course again, but this time as a large group, I remember explicitly telling him to be careful.  Smiling and kissing me goodbye, he told me, flippantly, that of course he would be careful...he would take it slow.

A few hours later, my engineer came home, sadness written on his face.  Sitting on the couch, he told me what happened.  A senior officer had climbed the beast to lead his team through the course.  However, something went wrong at the top.  My engineer, standing not 30 feet away, described how the man then plummeted 30 feet to the ground.  Looking at me, and then his hands, he told me that the medical personnel did all that they could do...but there was nothing to be done.  

The men and women in uniform stood and watched as one of their leaders fell to what would soon there after be his death.  My engineer would carry this with him, being extra careful with his own men, in the years that followed.  

Death in combat is something that we can ALMOST accept (unless you are the wife of the fallen....then forget that) in our society.  But there is no way that anyone can ever fully rationalize a death in a training exercise.  It is a loss that is wasteful and means nothing in the end.

The loss on that course helped force the military to examine safety standards and measures at its Obstacle Courses.  After a second death of a senior officer from the same tower at another location, Blue was forced to discontinue use of that apparatus.  While this tragedy can be rationalized in light of that needed change, it does not erase the loss of a good man nor the memory of his fall from the minds of the troops who stood witness.