The victim was not a new recruit / trainee. Marine Captain Lightfoot was a career officer who volunteered to transfer from the Marine Corp. into the Army's Special Forces; Captain Lightfoot was already a recreational diver.
I don't know but it wasn't a diving accident, which is what the A&I forum is for discussing
What occurred sounds like
immersion pulmonary edema (IPE), an often fatal condition for BOTH snorkelers/swimmers and scuba divers, that can be induced in healthy people (i.e. those without hypertension) by the combination of over hydration, exertion and negative-pressure breathing, or what hyperbaric MDs call "negative static lung-loading" (NSLL). When your body is immersed but your head is out of the water - bingo - you're experiencing NSLL, because of the pressure differential between the air pressure at your lips and the higher air pressure inside your lungs that has to counteract the water pressure surrounding your chest. And let's not forget the immersion effect - simply by being immersed, blood moves from your limbs to your core. During head-up immersion (or NSLL induced by a scuba regulator), the blood pressure inside your lungs is higher than what would be measured by a BP cuff. This excess blood pressure inside your lungs can reach a tipping point... blood plasma then leaks through the capillary walls in your alveoli...
you literally drown in your own blood plasma.
As a diver wanting to avoid DCS, how many times have you been told, "hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!" But over-hydration can tip you dangerously close to IPE! You're at greater danger if you combine over hydration with a mechanically-induced dangerous level of NSLL, caused by a regulator that has excess inhalation resistance (because it's poorly designed, badly tuned, or inadvertently set to the "pre-dive" position).
Extensive research for military and commercial divers has proven the efficacy and safety of
positive-pressure breathing systems. Why have recreational dive training agencies failed to educate and warn about NSLL and IPE? IPE has been discussed by diving MDs for over 30 years; 1950's US Navy dive-helmet training films warn of capillary bleeding if there's negative pressure inside the helmet; in the early 1970's, the Los Angeles County Underwater Instructors (the world's oldest recreational dive training organization) published accounts of unexplained deaths which perfectly match what we now know as IPE.
Victims don't have to drown in their own blood plasma if the recreational dive industry did a better job of education
AND regulator specifications. But at autopsy, it's impossible to tell an IPE death from a natural drowning. Perhaps the industry has prevented teaching about IPE to avoid equipment liability exposure? For years, the US Navy has warned scuba divers not to over-hydrate because of the risk of IPE; you can download the latest edition of the US Navy diving manual for free here:
SEA 00C3 Diving Publications and Technical Documentation
Why do you think Cousteau wore his regulator on his chest (to enjoy positive-pressure breathing):
Family seeks answers in death of diver trainee
By
Joe Gould - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 29, 2011 10:02:24 EDT
ELMONT, N.Y. — It was the third day of Special Forces pre-scuba training and Capt. Juan E. Lightfoot was exhausted.
He gripped the edge of the pool and refused to let go. But an instructor peeled his hands from the edge of the pool and another dragged him away from the wall.
Lightfoot went limp and sank to the bottom of the 11-foot, 6-inch-deep pool.
Despite efforts to revive him, Lightfoot never woke up.
Four days later, his family had him removed from life support.
The armed forces medical examiner ruled Lightfoot’s death a homicide. The medical examiner, Mark Shelly, said Lightfoot, 34, died of complications from a near-drowning. He noted that Lightfoot, who was “anxious and hyperventilating,” tried to exit the pool, “but the instructors did not allow him to do so.” When the instructor pried his hands from the wall, he “immediately sank to the bottom,” Shelly wrote, adding that Lightfoot “would have survived if he had been able to exit the pool.”
Investigators with Special Forces Command (Airborne) said instructors failed to heed signs that Lightfoot was not aerobically fit for the course and to remove him.
So far, multiple investigations have stopped short of accusing anyone in the cadre of criminal negligence.
Lightfoot’s adoptive parents, Denise Carter and Damian Gennino, both New York City schoolteachers who live in Elmont, N.Y., insist that the instructors in his Special Forces pre-scuba training course should face criminal prosecution and that their commanders should be fired.
“My son’s death, in my opinion, was a murder,’ ” Carter said. “It was not an accidental thing.”
“These guys were overzealous, pushed him to the limit. He wasn’t thinking properly; he was physically exhausted and mentally exhausted after five days of brutal training,” Gennino said. “They knew he was exhausted and they pushed him off the side of the pool and into the water, and he was dead in three seconds.”
On Dec. 8, 2010, at the pool on what is now Pope Army Airfield, N.C., one student reported hearing Lightfoot ask, “Please let me hold the gunnel,” referring to the pool’s edge. On a video that was originally intended to be a training aid, investigators said, a voice is heard on the tape saying, “Say the word.”
But Lightfoot refused to say “I quit” — the words that would have ended his training and saved his life — and appeared to be trying to exit the pool, Shelly wrote.
The Army showed the video to a family member because Lightfoot’s parents did not want to watch it. The parents said they were told by the family member that the audio had been removed. However, the 15-6 investigation’s report makes reference to comments on the video and Lt. Col. Tom Bryant, spokesman for Army Special Operations Command, said the audio track was not removed.
Special Forces Command immediately ordered an investigation into Lightfoot’s Dec. 12 death. Although that 15-6 investigation has been completed, Army Criminal Investigation Division “is conducting an investigation into the training death of Captain Lightfoot and the investigation remains open,” Christopher Grey, a CID spokesman, wrote in an email to Army Times. Grey referred other questions to Special Forces Command.
Bryant said Lightfoot’s death sparked three investigations: the 15-6, an investigation by the Army Combat Readiness and Safety Center, and the CID investigation. Bryant said Brig. Gen. Edward M. Reeder Jr., a former commander of 7th Special Forces Group, to which Lightfoot was assigned, personally briefed the family on the 15-6’s results.
As with CID, Bryant stressed that the matter is not closed.
“At this time, the U.S. Army Special Forces Command has not initiated any criminal charges in this case,” Bryant said in an email to Army Times. However, Reeder “has initiated several adverse actions against instructors and leaders involved in the accident,” he said.
“Without question, those involved in this incident will be held accountable and appropriate action will be taken,” Bryant said in an earlier email. “Discussing specific disciplinary matters at this time would be premature.”
He stressed the commitment to safety: “On the day of the accident, a total of 12 instructors were at the pool leading the training for 11 students.”
The six-week 15-6 investigation produced a 563-page report from Special Forces Command (Airborne) investigators. That document, obtained by Lightfoot’s family through a freedom of information request, outlined a series of warning signs before Lightfoot’s death. The family gave a copy of the report to Army Times.
The report contains an analysis of various policies and regulations, dozens of sworn statements from instructors and students, and recommendations to improve Special Forces pre-scuba training.
To Lightfoot’s parents, this means the training program was flawed.
“If it wasn’t my son, I would say, ‘Thank God, at least they did the changes and this won’t happen to anybody else,’ ” Gennino said. “But this is just disturbing to me that he was pushed to that point.”
‘GREEN BERETS ARE BETTER’
Lightfoot was commissioned as a Marine infantry officer in 2004 and racked up three deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. He sought out Special Forces because, Lightfoot said, “I heard that the Green Berets are better, tougher, and it’s a better gig,” according to Gennino.
In October 2009, Lightfoot transferred from the Marines to the Army.
A trim 6 feet and 178 pounds, Lightfoot appeared to be in great shape. He was a self-taught Spanish speaker, an avid reader and a math whiz whose passions included martial arts, skydiving, deep-sea diving, motorcycles and, most of all, Latin culture. He studied Latin America in college and traveled extensively in South America. He was a natural addition to 7th Special Forces Group, whose area of responsibility is Latin America.
But Lightfoot was designated to become a leader of one of the group’s scuba teams. He was in the third day of his pre-dive training and preparing for the grueling combat diver course, considered one of the toughest regimens in the Army.
Lightfoot’s last days are detailed in the report, which was heavily redacted to remove the names, ranks and positions of those involved and his fellow students.
Nevertheless, it paints a picture of a chaotic, anxious scene at the pool on Dec. 8, 2010.
What follows is from the report: A pre-training physical revealed that Lightfoot had an irregular heartbeat. On the first day of training, he failed to run two miles in the required time and vomited afterward. He performed poorly in other events and, on the day before he nearly drowned, suffered his first shallow-water blackout during a weight-belt swim. He was given oxygen while he lay on his back, then was sent to train again. That same day he struggled to take instruction and had difficulty
breathing, the report said.
“He seemed almost embarrassed and ashamed at his performance,” said a team member who spoke with Lightfoot during the training. “He stated once, ‘How can I lead this team after they have seen me like this.’ I tried to build his confidence by letting him know that he will lead by overcoming adversity.”
Special Forces units have for several years hosted their own courses designed to prepare students for the rigors of the Combat Dive Qualification Course. This training, designed to simulate training at the CDQC at Key West, Fla., includes pool, classroom and open-water training. So-called “stress” events are designed to get students comfortable in the water under extreme conditions. For example, “drown-proofing” requires students’ ankles and wrists to be bound with their hands behind their back. They then go through exercises such as bobbing for single gasps of air, moving certain distances and performing underwater flips.
Several of Lightfoot’s classmates told investigators that instructors had been aggressive during the training, according to the report. Some students’ heads were forcibly dunked underwater; another said he was sprayed with a hose while performing flutter kicks. One said instructors blocked students from reaching the “gunnel” when they wanted to rest.
‘BETTER, TOUGHER’
Relatives and friends said Lightfoot had mixed feelings about leading a scuba team, although he accepted the assignment in November. After graduating the challenging Special Forces Qualification Course in October at age 33, he was unsure he was up for another rigorous program.
His dream had been to fight Marxist guerrillas in South America, Carter said.
“He was one of the older guys and he felt it would be strenuous, especially after getting out of the Green Beret program,” she said of the scuba course, “but he also felt he was in good shape and he was capable of physical things.”
“He liked the men that he was with [in Special Forces],” Carter said. “He said, ‘These are good guys.’ He made very close friends.”
As a teenager, Lightfoot was a black belt in aikido; he had a job at a local comic book store and loved the X-Men. “I guess in his own way, he wanted to be a super-hero,” his father said.
Continued to part 2 of 2
Staff writer
Sean D. Naylor contributed to this report.
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