This seems totally preventable. During my time in boot camp (Navy OCS – almost 15 years ago), I distinctly remember our Marine drill instructor periodically ordering us to drain our canteens, and then refill them. We were virtually never thirsty – almost the opposite. When it was very hot outside (in Pensacola, this was frequently), we’d do hard-core PT (physical training) inside.
But I couldn’t find any statistics on heat stroke deaths during military training as compared to youth sports.
So I don’t know if my inclination – that the military is able to prevent heatstroke deaths during their intense physical training, but youth sports administrators and coaches sometimes are not, due to some bad practices – is true. Anyone know any more on this?
An article from an August 2011 edition of the Army Times says, “Army Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Eric Schoomaker reminded the force this year that an average of two to three soldiers die annually from heat illnesses, most of them during physical testing or training.” The article you linked to says, “The death of the healthy 6-foot-2, 300-pound freshman was the second heat stroke death of a college athlete since 2003, according to the University of Connecticut’s Korey Stringer Institute, named after an NFL player who died of heat stroke in 2001.”
So it happens in the military as well as among college athletes.
Another statistic, “According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at the University of North Carolina, the number of heat-related sporting deaths at all ages has increased from 11 between 2000 and 2004 to 18 between 2005 and 2009.”
It happens at Ft. Benning about once a summer. Despite all of the policies and SOPs in place to prevent such a thing, it still happens. When it does happen, it is usually caused by neglect or dereliction on the part of someone in charge–often multiple people.
Here’s the thing- while you can provide all the water, etc… that would be necessary, there’ll always be someone who forgets, or chooses not to drink an appropriate amount of water and/or refuses to tap out when they get to feeling poorly due to overheating.
Short of literally forcing and monitoring soldiers’/marines’/sailors’/airmen’s/athletes’ water intake and temperature, this kind of thing is going to happen.
Thankfully, it happens VERY infrequently in terms of the number of people involved- some million plus high school football players, 75k Army recruits, 40k Marine recruits, 40k Navy Recruits, and 28k Air Force recruits. That’s not including college or middle school football, other sports, or women’s sports.
A handful each year is a really GOOD rate, considering the sheer numbers involved.
The problem is that often, military personnel are motivated to demonstrate endurance and extreme capability. On selection exercises for something like the SAS, this is ramped up to the max, and is often accompanied by levels of fatigue that can affect judgement. This is an occasionally fatal mix.
When my son played high school football, the drill was supposed to be that each player did one set, then came off for two sets for rest and hydration. Instead, my son would trot off the field, then turn around and come back out with the next set of players and do consecutive sets.
One day he collapsed during a morning workout and spent the rest of the day in the Emergency Room, where my wife and I took turns calling him an idiot.