Houston we have a problem. 
Maybe a Seal Team needed to be deployed rescue them? LOL Hell, the Rangers could have come to the rescue too.
They got a ride home in a helicopter instead. I’m surprised the military didn’t do the chopper rescue. Would have been a good training opportunity They evacuate troops in trouble regularly in battlefield situations.
They said a couple guys had altitude sickness. But the entire team got evacuated. They must have been experiencing troubles too.
Got curious and looked up Altitude Sickness. Cases can be mild and the symptoms go away as the body adjusts to the altitude. Severe cases require immediate help.
I’ve never hiked in any high altitudes. Don’t ski either. So my mountain experience is zilch.
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/altitude-sickness-topic-overview
And yet you feel the need to mock people suffering a medical emergency during a military training exercise. Is there anything that escapes the judgmental ire of old aceplace, sitting comfortably behind his keyboard?
I’m not mocking anyone. I offered up some light hearted comments. This wasn’t a tragedy for gosh sakes. Nobody got hurt. In fact the article makes it clear that the Green Berets handled the situation quite well.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t receive some kidding later. The competition between the Special Forces branches is well known. These are the most elite forces in the military. The Green Berets will get far worse ribbing from their brothers than anything we might say.
You missed this part.
So just because they’re Green Berets doesn’t mean they’re immune (or weak or unmanly).
Do people shown to be susceptible to altitude sickness on one occasion remain vulnerable thereafter?
This article explains how to minimize the risk.
http://www.berkeleywellness.com/self-care/preventive-care/article/avoiding-altitude-sickness
The best way to avoid AMS is to ascend gradually. A common recommendation is to spend at least one day acclimatizing at an intermediate level (such as 7,000 feet) and ascend from there, at a rate of about 1,000 feet a day.
I live at 11,200. My cousin, in Denver at 5,200 can’t handle the altitude at my house to visit. She gets very, very sick.
I’ve seen altitude sickness. It’s really bad news. And hard to predict who might get it. It’s much like getting a very bad case of the flu in about 2 hours.
It is acclimation. My Wife went to Alaska for 6 months, came back to altitude and got sick.
I have bought O2 to keep at the house for visitors.
It’s kinda crazy, but you don’t see deep blue skies and stars on the beach.
Yes. There is a substantial genetic component. It’s quite refractory to training, and susceptibility is not well correlated with overall fitness (except in the trivial sense that a fitter person can move and climb faster for a given level of exertion). I’m not aware of any way to predict how an individual will react to altitude until they experience it. Although the basic physiology is well understood, the genetics is not.
I’m just wondering if, given that the mission is “rapid response”, whether some teams should be stationed and trained at higher altitudes to negate any acclimation time lag or health risk.
I don’t think that the Navy toughens up its people by making them go through ‘the bends’. I was told that long term DCS can permanently sideline the most talented divers.
If AMS is the other end of that scale, could this ruin the lives and the careers of their most senior talented people?
They are stationed at higher elevations. Ft. Carson, just outside Colorado Springs, is home to the 10th Special Forces Group. The elevation is 6,100 ft, which is almost certainly the highest military base in the nation.
And no, it will not affect their careers. There is absolutely no way to predict who will be affected by altitude, and who will not be.
I personally have had no trouble at the top of Pikes Peak, but plenty of people do.
Kinda like decompressing when diving. Makes sense.
When I was in the National Outdoor Leadership School in Wyoming, we made several peak ascents, including the summit of an 11,505-ft peak in the Wind River Range. I didn’t have any problem whatsoever, and I was far, far from the most fit person on my course. Altitude sickness really doesn’t correlate to fitness.
Well let’s see. Two of their team developed altitude sickness while ascending, and the well-known first response for altitude sickness is, get to a lower altitude.
But they kept on going up. They decided that was best. Sounds like it was a complete-the-mission-at-all-costs macho thing. Normal people would say, “Okay, you two, go back down.” Because in fact, altitude sickness can go beyond uncomfortable to dangerous.
Maybe. On the other hand the question arises what is optimal for a helicopter rescue? Apparently there was a place to land at the top, but they might have to go down a substantial distance to reach another helicopter landing place. And there could be worse wind problems on the side of the mountain.
I skied at 15k once. Didn’t get sick, but passed out in the car on the way back to the hotel.
If a safe landing spot for a helicopter is closer going up than down then going up (briefly) might actually make more sense.
Well, other than by actually training at altitude, right? And once the vulnerability has been thus exposed, maybe those guys shouldn’t be assigned to a unit that may be deployed in a mountain area.
The following link is a bit of a tangent, but it is related to altitude performance. It’s a good article on athletic performances at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City.