Post by Focus on Jul 15, 2013 2:25:31 GMT
* They were training during the hottest day of the year
* Third person remains in hospital following the incident
* Ministry of Defence working with police to investigate
* Source: 'It is a case of the people succumbing to being affected by the training that
they were doing'
* Soldier also died training at Brecon Beacons earlier this year
Two soldiers were ‘marched to death’ in a grueling SAS selection exercise on the hottest day of the year.
The Territorial Army pair were among six men to collapse with heat exhaustion in the Brecon Beacons mountain range.
All six were flown to hospital where two were pronounced dead and a third was fighting for his life.
Two soldiers died in the Brecon Beacons during a training exercise on what was the hottest day of the year, the Ministry of Defence has said (file picture)
Around 100 Territorial Army troops took part in Saturday’s exercise in rugged terrain 2,900 ft above sea level.
Commanders put them through brutal physical trials, including long runs in body armour while carrying weapons, ammunition and battlefield equipment weighing more than 100 lbs.
But, as temperatures hit 30 C, the casualties started to pile up.
An RAF Sea King helicopter was deployed immediately along with a civilian air ambulance to ferry the victims to hospital at Merthyr Tydfil.
Last night the tragedy was being investigated by the Ministry of Defence and Dyfed-Powys Police. The families have been informed.
One Army officer said: ‘The troops are desperate to prove they are up to joining the SAS and push themselves harder and harder. They are encouraged to by the instructors who are unforgiving.
Expertise : Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British troops in Afghanistan, said the grueling SAS tryout 'push soldiers to the extreme'
‘There is going to be a huge inquiry into what happened because on the face of it these lads look like they’ve been marched to death.
‘More should be done to ensure these needless tragedies don’t occur.’
The men, who were seeking entry to an SAS reserve unit, collapsed in hills near the town of Brecon.
A defence source said: ‘It is a case of the people succumbing to the training that they were doing.
'We have health and safety procedures in place for everything but that must be balanced against the fact we are training people to go into extremely challenging environments.
‘We don’t go out of our way to kill people but we have to put them in tough situations because that is what they will be facing on operations.’
The Brecon Beacons are a notoriously inhospitable area for army training operations and are used by both regular units and the special forces.
Sources indicated the tragedy was caused by heat exhaustion. A third soldier remains in hospital
In January, Captain Rob Carnegie was found dead on the mountain range’s snow-covered Corn Du peak.
He was taking part in a grueling 40-mile march in freezing conditions as part of a selection process for the SAS when he collapsed.
Army chiefs say the rugged and sprawling terrain helps prepare soldiers physically and mentally for warfare, as well as putting their logistic, survival and map-reading skills to the test.
But the uplands can prove dangerous even to the most hardened service personnel.
Major Alan Davies, who was involved in contingency planning during the first Gulf War, said it is one of the most challenging terrains military personnel can encounter.
‘On one end of the spectrum you have cadets being taken for mountain walking and at the other end of the spectrum the SAS use it,’ he said.
Major Davies said the dead men, who have not been named, would have been carrying heavy equipment and pushing themselves hard to a deadline.
Tory MP David Davies, a former member of the Territorial Army, said: ‘Nobody should jump to any conclusions here about what may have caused this, but obviously we all know that, for example, people who take part in marathons run a small risk of dying of heat stroke and all sorts of other things, and the British Army does train its soldiers very, very hard indeed.
The training is there for a purpose, and it is arduous training at any level, and sometimes things tragically go wrong.’
The Army’s website says of the Brecon Beacons: ‘Training for high-intensity, light-role war fighting is the way soldiers and officers are prepared for any operational situation they may face – conventional war, counter insurgency, security sector reform, peacekeeping or supporting civil authorities.
‘This ensures that the training is as close to current operations and pre-deployment training as possible, whilst maintaining the ability to train for high intensity war fighting.’
An MoD spokesman said: ‘The MoD can confirm that it is working with Dyfed-Powys Police to investigate an incident during a training exercise on the Brecon Beacons on Saturday in which two members of military personnel died.
‘More information will be released in due course but it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.’
The three other men who were taken to hospital were discharged after being checked over by doctors.
THE ULTIMATE TESTING GROUND FOR TROOPS
Colonel Richard Kemp, who commanded British troops in Afghanistan, writes :
Many times during my military service I have seen just how treacherous the Brecon Beacons can be, especially on the rare occasions of soaring heat.
This is the ultimate testing ground for British troops preparing for battle and it is no coincidence that selection for the Special Air Service – the toughest training in the world – takes place in these rugged Welsh hills.
Military combat demands extreme levels of physical fitness and endurance, and nowhere is this truer than in the blistering heat of Afghanistan’s deserts.
British troops have fought with enormous success there and to a great extent this is due to arduous training in areas such as Brecon where fitness, navigation, combat survival and teamwork are tested in near battle conditions.
Soldiers are pushed to the extreme, marching for hours by day and night, carrying weapons, ammunition, battle equipment and a rucksack weighing more than 50lb.
Commanders and soldiers are all taught about the potentially lethal hazards of operating in the heat, which is equally dangerous in training and in actual combat.
Although we don’t know exactly what went wrong in the Beacons on Saturday, the awful reality is that when troops train for war, tragedy can sometimes strike, however well prepared they might be.
TRAGEDY IS SECOND IN BRECON BEACONS THIS YEAR AND THIRD SINCE 2011
Saturday's tragedy was not the first time soldiers have died training in the Brecon Beacons.
In January, Captain Rob Carnegie was taking part in a grueling 17-40 mile march in freezing conditions as part of a selection process for the special forces regiment when he collapsed and died.
The soldier, in this 20s, was given first aid by army personnel but could not be revived and was declared dead at the scene.
And in January 2011, Benjamin Poole, 26, collapsed at the end of an 18-mile mountain march carrying a 44lb rucksack and rifle.
Fsl Wilkinson, pictured with his step-son, had only recently been stationed in Germany when he was shot
He had been sent on the grueling exercise with a group of soldiers as punishment for littering.
On Friday, a Sergeant and a Corporal were given lengthy military jail sentences after a soldier died when he was shot in the neck during a training exercise, in Kenya.
Corporal Colin Bell and Staff Sergeant Patrick Price have also been thrown out of the army following Fusilier James Wilkinson's death.
Fsl Wilkinson, 21, and a fellow serviceman were manning a general purpose machine gun for more than 100 troops.
Bell had taken the barrel of a machine gun that had become jammed and while inspecting the weapon it fired, hitting Fsl Wilkinson in the neck.
The court heard that Bell, 29, and Price had failed to follow procedure by failing to call an armorer to fix the weapon.
A judge ruled that the death of the serviceman from the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers had been 'wholly and utterly avoidable'.
[Commanders put them through brutal physical trials, including long runs in body armour while carrying weapons, ammunition and battlefield equipment weighing more than 100 lbs. But, as temperatures hit 30 C, the casualties started to pile up] - When the first casualty happened why the hell didn't they STOP the trials?? - Our soldiers have more than enough on their plate fighting wars ... they do not expect to be killed during trials by their own commanders ffs - Heads must roll!! - Fx
