Posted on 06/13/2007 12:18:51 AM PDT by Racehorse
Searchers found the body late Tuesday of a sergeant who was missing for four days after he disappeared during a training exercise, an Army spokeswoman said.
Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader, 25, went missing Friday during a solo exercise testing basic map-reading and navigation skills.
Col. Diane Battaglia, III Corps spokeswoman at Fort Hood, said the body was found on the rugged Central Texas Army post. The body had been sent for an autopsy and the cause of death had not been determined, she said.
Sprader was one of nearly 320 noncommissioned officers being trained as part of a two-week leadership course.
He wasn't the only soldier who got lost during the three-hour exercise, but nine others who were disoriented got back to the rally point safely by following the sound of a siren that blasts when time is up, Battaglia said.
Reached on his cell phone two hours after the exercise was over, Sprader told commanders he wanted to finish the drill.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
If there are streams there how did he get so dehydrated? How far could he have gotten in a few hours? I just don’t understand how he could have been missing for so long. This story is very peculiar to me.
Dehydration probably. He probably went down at some point and by then, they couldn’t find him.
What I think happened is the Alarm went off to sound the end of the excercise. The Sgt didn’t want to stop until he had accomplished the mission. Two hours later he receives a phone call from the NCOIC or the OIC. One of two possibilities then seem most likely: A) He asks to continue and the commander agrees. B)Commander says “no”, but the Sgt continues anyways. The second option seems less likely, a soldier isn’t trained to disobey orders for purposes of pride, but than again he didn’t come in at the sound of the “all done” horn.
Things kind of fall back on who was in charge. I think whoever it was didn’t ask the appropriate questions while on the phone with the Sgt. Things like identifiable landmarks (roads, hills, streams) could have been identified to locate a general location of the Sgt. If the Sgt was lacking in water, he should not have moved another foot. It was hilly terrain, and depending on the time of day he would be heading to dehydration land. Before heading out, all NCO’s should have received a class on what dangers where out there, and what to do. IE, how to avoid snakes and what to do if you’ve been bitten by one.
Dehydration causes a person to make unwise, sometimes opposite decisions.
Another possibility, mountain lions although, one would think the authorities would mention such injuries.
And what if the SGT was simply surrounded by wood, too high for him to identify any landmarks at that point? I don’t know the Ft Hood area, but plenty of bases I have been too have that feature. Ft Jackson for one.
My son was at Fort Hood awhile. His MOS is combat medic. His duty was a field hospital - dealt with training injuries and casualties. Dehydration is a big issue there - that place is both hot and humid and then cold at night and full of snakes and insects. When they’d get a new group of troops in for training they’d have 15 or 20 cases of heat exhaustion a day. One day he had 35.
When he did PLDC he was bitten by a brown recluse spider, but asked for and received permission to finish with a 2 hour “rest” in the emergency room. He still has a hole in his thigh.
My son was at Fort Hood awhile. His MOS is combat medic. His duty was a field hospital - dealt with training injuries and casualties. Dehydration is a big issue there - that place is both hot and humid and then cold at night and full of snakes and insects. When they’d get a new group of troops in for training they’d have 15 or 20 cases of heat exhaustion a day. One day he had 35.
When he did PLDC he was bitten by a brown recluse spider, but asked for and received permission to finish with a 2 hour “rest” in the emergency room. He still has a hole in his thigh.
This is so sad.
The heat and humidity here in Central Texas made me fear he could not survive..Rest in Peace Sgt. Lawrence G. Sprader
May God comfort his family.
Simply saying you are on a hill can help, little things like that can help quite a bit.
Sorry about the double post - need more coffee
Well, im imagining that this man wasn’t in recon or SpecOp of any sort. Having streams nearby does not always mean being able to use them (if you don’t have training, they may have been told to not drink from them due to malaria, or some other diseases in the water).
And by the time he would have been thirsty enough to say “screw it, im drinking” he probably couldnt think right.
Just IMO.
I understand that.
But if HE didn’t know where he was, then how should he have conveyed such a thing?
To all those here who are faulting the Army, the guys in charge of this training and the dead man himself without any knowledge of the circumstances, lighten up. For all we know this soldier could have had a heart attack, it happens to college atheletes every season and they are in better condition than anyone.
Oddly enough, the USAF even trained its medics in land nav - annually. It was drummed into us that even though we may have a cushy job stateside, 48 hours from now we could be treating typhoid in Central America or shrapnel wounds in Antarctica.
Lots of speculation going on over this tragedy. We’ll know more details in the days to come. Prayers for this soldier and his family.
I think yours is possible, but lets not negate the will power of a “know-it-all” vet. Many people in the armed services tend to think they know their body. And just like at BCT, people try to cheat the system to have a little less to carry around.
Being an NCO, i doubt he was checked for full canteens. Not saying it is the cause, but I’m not counting it out yet.
They will announce the coroners report and we will just have to wait to see how he died, but even then unless it was a sudden affliction that points to a quick death we will probably never know why he did what he did.
If he were traveling through stream beds, the trees would be a problem. I have hiked through Ft Hood (unbeknownst to the authorities) and there’s ample opportunity to seek higher ground.
BTW: for those who have never been in the military (including myself), having A-10 Warthogs and Apache helis flying over your head while hiding in the underbrush, is an absolute RUSH!
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