Two soldiers dead, one VSI from heat-stroke

tac foley

here in South Wales over the weekend. One died within 300m of a stream that might have saved him, in full view of a family.

PLEASE take care training in the unexpected heat that we are currently experiencing in thse islands - I really don't want to read about anything more like this happening to any military hopefuls on THESE pages.

tac

cruasder777

Its believed they were SAS reservists doing selection.

tac foley

It is believed that they were TA reservists doing SAS selection.

Selection has to be successfully completed in order to commence SAS training, not afterwards.

tac

gizmo555

Sadly, a third army reserve soldier has died as result of injuries sustained in this incident:

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/jul/30/army-soldier-dies-brecon-beacons

cruasder777

tac foley wrote: »

It is believed that they were TA reservists doing SAS selection.

Selection has to be successfully completed in order to commence SAS training, not afterwards.

tac

Not the time for point scoring Tac.


RIP.

tac foley

Not point scoring, simply putting the facts right. It doesn't in any way reduce the heartache that most of us feel for all the families and loved ones of these soldiers.

All, it appears, had already done tours in 'stan, and were, in any event, prodigious soldiers, part-time or not.

tac

John Mongo

RIP Warriors.

claypigeon777

There's a great book I read by "Harry McCallion" aka Henry Gow, the son of a Scottish criminal who joined the Paras in 1970 aged 17 before he fought in Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe) in the 1970s.

He did the selection process when he returned to Britain to try his luck at becoming an SAS soldier. While they were in the Brecons one of the men went missing and they went looking for him. They found him curled up trying to shelter from the wind but unfortunately quite dead. He says one of the men asked what did this mean and an officer said "Well he's failed selection for starters..."
After a chopper took the dead guy away the rest of them had to continue with selection like nothing had happened.

Gow succeeded and became an SAS man. Gow took part in the Falklands War and Northern Ireland where he was involved in some "shoot to kill" operations and saw some combat in a few other places in Africa before he joined the RUC and later became a barrister.

tac foley

Yes, we do have a certain robust sense of humour, there's no denying it. You save the histrionics for the time that you set aside for that kind of thing - meanwhile, the task must be completed.

tac