Military service is probably one of the riskiest occupations in which one can participate. It’s not a surprise, it’s an accepted risk, and that is one of the reasons that those who are veterans of foreign wars are looked up to with respect and admiration for their courage and sacrifice...
By Egon E. Mosum
Military service is probably one of the riskiest occupations in which one can participate.
While you are engaged in killing people and breaking things, (which is the real function of any military once the glitter is blown off the patriotic picture frame), the other side is trying to kill and break you.
It’s not a surprise, it’s an accepted risk, and that is one of the reasons that those who are veterans of foreign wars are looked up to with respect and admiration for their courage and sacrifice.
Obviously, what enters into service starts out as a civilian, and through basic training and advanced training, and then in training maneuvers and exercises the civilian becomes the soldier, sailor, airman or marine.
Then that military man or woman becomes combat ready, so he or she has a fair chance of survival while becoming combat experienced — which is an entirely different thing.
It’s not expected that during training and during exercises the G.I. is going to die. But it happens. Because for training to be useful, it must contain some lesser yet similar risk to the real deal that one trains for.
Unfortunately, as I write this article, four American military personnel have just died in a training accident.
In the past week, ‘the victims are chief warrant officers Andrew Cully and Andrew Kraus, and sergeants Donavon Scott and Jadalyn Good.’ CBS news reported that these Special Operation soldiers died when ‘their MH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 17 (2025).’[1]
I have included their names so the readers will know who sacrificed their lives for their country, even though it was during a training exercise and not actual combat.
The goals were the same, to protect this country and its people; the venue of the death does not dilute from the dedication to duty that these soldiers demonstrated.
This was the most recent occurrence of our GIs dying in training, and unfortunately it isn’t the only one.
Anyone, (and your author is one), who has known the ‘pleasure’ of undergoing basic training in the summertime in a state that isn’t exactly known for the need to wear a fur coat, is familiar with the risk of heat stroke.
It can, and does kill.
In October, 2009 ‘Pvt. Jamal Britt, assigned to C Co., 3rd Battalion, 13th Infantry Regiment, collapsed during the Army Physical Fitness Test.’ His death at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, was due to heat stroke. He was nineteen.
He had company a few months before when at the same fort, ‘Eighteen-year-old Pvt. Jonathan Morales of Milwaukee died Aug. 20 from apparent heatstroke while participating in a march, just days before he was to graduate from basic training.’[2]
When your author went through Air Force basic training in San Antonio in the months of July and August, I learned first-hand about what heat can do to you when you are exercising heavily, but fortunately, I just passed out for a few seconds. Britt and Morales were not so lucky.
So, we have seen that military training can be an equal opportunity killer, it can take the lives of raw recruits, and it can take the lives of seasoned operators.
Let’s raise the periscope and take a look at some more examples of when military lessons became lethal, and practice did not make perfect.
Kyle Mullen was a college football star, and just the type one would expect to try to earn his “Budweiser” badge as a United States Navy Seal.
His first attempt failed, and he took the basic course again in 2022, and in the middle of the traditional Hell Week, (wherein would-be SEALS get to know what cold wet and tired really mean), Mullen became seriously ill, coughing up blood and exhausted.
But Mullen had the right stuff, and finished Hell Week. Unfortunately, Hell Week also finished Mullen. He died after that infamous week, at twenty-four years old, likely from some form of pneumonia.[3]
Then in 2024, there were two men who had become Navy Seals, and proudly wore the insignia of America’s best.
But they didn’t get to retire with a trove of sea stories, because they ‘drowned as they tried to climb aboard a ship carrying illicit Iranian-made weapons to Yemen because of glaring training failures and a lack of understanding about what to do after falling into deep, turbulent waters, according to a military investigation into the January (2024) deaths.’
This incident is a different angle about death and training. The deaths in this case didn’t take place during training, but likely occurred because of training that was not up to par.[4]
It’s no secret that the toughest basic training is brought to you by the United States Marine Corps. (Full Metal Jacket movie fans get the idea).
It is a major accomplishment to successfully finish Marine Corps boot camp, but unfortunately, not every ‘boot’ walks out upright.
‘Pfc. Noah Jamar Evans, 21, died April 18, 2023, at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina.’ He was engaged in a physical fitness test, one in which he died trying to pass.
It was reported in The Marine Times, that ‘Evans was the fourth recruit to die at the boot camp in the span of two years.’[5]
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Our national security is highly dependent on our individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines. Technological wonders can help win a war, but when things get down and dirty, and it’s time to do the building-to-building bullet ballet, it’s the guys who fill those boots on the ground that get the job done.
We owe them.
We should all be concerned with their well-being; that their training is the best, and that training is as safe as is practically possible without diluting its value to prepare our GIs for the real thing.
There are times when the trainers fail, there are times when the trainees fail in body not in spirit, and these times will unfortunately continue.
But the odds of survival can be increased.
We can contact our representatives and insist that our guys and gals in uniform get the best training there is, and they get the best medical care that can get while they are in uniform, whether in training or in combat.
After all, we are the guys paying for it.
In today’s reality, it is difficult to get our ‘representatives’ to get off their political ass and do anything, but everybody looks good when they are rooting for our troops, and the optics are just fine for our fine legislators when they strive to serve those who serve us all.
Maybe it’s time we make the call, and maybe it’s time our politicians answer it.
