Marines investigating death of Camp Lejeune recruit

[thedrifter]

Marines investigating death of Camp Lejeune recruit
By Heather Brown

(Camp Lejeune, NC) June 21, 2005 - 21-year-old Brian Smith was participating in pre-scuba training at a pool on the outskirts of Camp Lejeune last Friday afternoon. He was preparing for a basic reconnaissance course: the special ops of the Marines.

Brian had signed up for the Marines in December. He just finished up boot camp and joined his unit one week before he died at the pool. Base officials say water instructors tried to revive him at the pool. EMS workers took over until he arrived at the nearby naval hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Marines say an preliminary investigation is underway

This is the second death at a Marine Corps pool this year. In February, 19-year old Jason Tharp drowned during a basic water survival test at Parris Island. The Marines say he was in the middle of a 25-meter swim requirement and that he got into the water voluntarily that day.

Just 24 hours before Jason died, WIS cameras caught Jason and his drill instructor on tape. News 10 was told at the time that Jason wanted out of the Marines. Eight Marines have been suspended on suspicion of violating physical conduct rules since the video aired.

Three investigations into that case are still underway. There's no timeline yet on when those results will be released to the public.

Brian Smith is from Lawrenceville, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. He's a third generation military man. His funeral is scheduled for Friday.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Article published Jun 28, 2005
Four Marines face discipline after recruit's death
By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press Writer

A water survival instructor at the Parris Island Marine Corps Depot faces disciplinary action in the drowning of a 19-year-old recruit, and an investigation released Tuesday said the death could have been prevented.

An Article 32 hearing, similar to a civilian grand jury proceeding, will be held in the Feb. 8 death of Jason Robert Tharp of Sutton, W.Va. The instructor could face a trial by court-martial.

The instructor's name was not immediately released because no formal charges have been filed, said base spokesman Maj. Ken White.

The investigation also recommended disciplinary action against three other Marines for actions related to Tharp's training but not connected to the drowning.

The investigation concluded the water survival instructor either failed to recognize or ignored indications Tharp was too tired or incapable of continuing swim training the day of the drowning.

"He was working with a swim instructor because he kept telling the instructor he could not 'do it.' He had his head under water several times while in the pool, although it was not under water more than a few seconds," according to the autopsy report.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Family struggles to understand son's training accident
Published Tuesday June 28 2005
By GEOFF ZIEZULEWICZ
The Beaufort Gazette

While hundreds of miles separate Malia Isaac from the West Virginia parents of Marine Corps recruit Jason Tharp, who died during water training Feb. 8 on Parris Island, she feels their pain.
Issac's son, Josh, also joined the Marines to earn money for school, and both men had written home early during their 12-week training to say how hard it was. Josh struggled with water combat survival training as well, and on the morning of June 30, 2003, he went under due to causes that were never concretely determined.

He's been in a vegetative state ever since.

And with the ongoing investigation into Tharp's death, Malia Isaac has asked the Marine Corps to re-open the case regarding what happened to her son nearly two years ago. The first Marine investigation into Josh's accident didn't determine exactly what happened that day.

Isaac, who lives in Georgia, said she's unsure if something went wrong during Josh's training or if she's just experiencing the endless "what-ifs" of a mother who hasn't heard her son's voice or seen him smile in nearly two years. They've been replaced by his distant, yet lucid, gaze.

"He has no brain activity at all," she said of Josh, now 20, who is confined to a wheelchair. "Maybe it's nothing, but I just feel I owe it to my son to find out exactly what happened."

Officials at Headquarters Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., confirmed earlier this month that they had received Isaac's March 1 letter of request to re-open the investigation, but that no decision has been made.

The investigation into what caused Tharp's death continues, and Isaac said that, regardless of the fate of her son's investigation, she feels for the Tharps.

"I know the shock they are feeling right now," Isaac said. "How did this happen to our sons? Their motives were so pure, and now there's so much grief. You're in shock and you're just numb."

A path to college

As he neared graduation day in 2003 at McIntosh High School in Peachtree City, Ga., an Atlanta suburb, Josh decided to enter the Marine Corps.

"He actually wanted to be an FBI agent," Isaac said, adding that her son decided to enlist to take the financial burden of school off his parents and to eventually make it to Marine Corps University at Quantico, Va. "I wasn't really happy, but once it was all said and done, I did support him, but he knew it wasn't the path I really wanted him to choose."

Josh enlisted in March 2003, and on May 27, two days after high school graduation, he set off for Parris Island.

Soon after arrival, Josh wrote home to his mom and sister.

"Dear Mom and Jill," he wrote. "I've been thinking of quitting, but I think I can make it. My shaking worries me though. I'll have many stories to tell you when I get home!"

Josh had slight involuntary tremors that ran in his family, but otherwise he was healthy, Isaac said. He had scuba dived and was a volunteer firefighter before heading off to Parris Island.

The Marine Corps investigation into Josh's accident portrayed him as a diminutive, yet very capable, recruit.

"Recruit Isaac was described by the series team and recruits alike as very highly motivated," according to the report. "Although small in stature, he was reported to be the loudest in the platoon."

A short time later, he wrote home again.

"It's a little tougher now physically, but easier mentally," he wrote in a hurried scribble. "I don't want to quit anymore!"

The accident

According to the investigation, Josh was in the middle of combat water survival training when a blank look came over his face as he was treading water. Soon after, he dipped below the surface, at which point an instructor dove in, brought him to the deck and crews began administering CPR.

The instructors worked to revive Josh until paramedics arrived, according to the report. He was taken to Naval Hospital Beaufort and then onto the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

Josh's condition initially improved upon arrival at the Naval Hospital emergency room, according to the report, but that did not last long.

"His condition began to degrade to coma, and tests given were inconclusive to the cause," the report states.

The probable cause of Josh's injuries is a condition known as hypoxia, when the brain doesn't receive sufficient oxygen, according to the report.

Josh was underwater for a few seconds before being pulled to safety, the report states, and severe brain injury usually occurs after two to three minutes without oxygen. The report states that CPR was initiated on Josh right after he was pulled from the pool.

According to the report, one cause of the lack of oxygen could have been a condition called laryngospasm, which results in a loss of air flow that is not readily recognizable or treatable with CPR. Another more probable cause, according to the report, is a theory posited by a doctor who examined the records and is an expert in water injuries.

The doctor theorized that a preexisting cyst in Isaac's lung may have caused Isaac to experience something called a "cerebral gas embolism," according to the report. An embolism is the sudden blocking of an artery by a blood clot or foreign material that moves through the bloodstream.

"If recruit Isaac had an existing alveolar cyst, which is not detectable under normal circumstances, and it burst with the pressure of the jump off the tower into deep water, it would take approximately 10 minutes for the embolism to go through the system," according to the opinions section of the report. "That is the approximate time that elapsed from when recruit Isaac jumped until his collapse."

The exact cause of Isaac's injury may never be known, unless an autopsy is conducted at the time of his death, said Maj. Ken White, a Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island spokesman.

"The Marine Corps said they think that's what happened, that there was something physically wrong with him," his mother said. "But until Josh passes away, there is no conclusive answer."

Josh's injuries won't kill him, but they have caused him to be largely brain dead, she said.

"The investigation found that we don't know, and will likely never know, what medical factors may have contributed to Private Isaac's condition," White said.

Lingering questions

Isaac said the Department of Veteran's Affairs has been helpful in taking care of Josh's needs. He is a Marine, and the Corps has paid for all his medical expenses, including the nursing home where he now resides near Peachtree City.

Still, she said questions abound in her mind regarding the investigation and what happened to her son.

According to the investigation, a doctor who dealt with Josh at MUSC was not directly interviewed by the investigating officer. Instead, a MUSC risk manager provided the details to Marine Corps investigators.

Isaac said she wants to know why the doctor wasn't interviewed directly.

"The inference that the investigating officer used third party or incomplete information in establishing findings of fact is false," White said, adding that all the information used was drawn directly from medical documentation and that the attending physician wasn't available due to patient load. "What's important here is the content, not the form of the analysis."

Isaac also wonders why the other three recruits who were taking part in the flotation exercise at the time of Josh's accident weren't interviewed directly.

"They never spoke to the other recruits in Josh's group of four," Isaac said. "My feeling is, wouldn't those three guys be closest to what was seen or done or heard?"

While all the recruits associated with Josh's training, the swim instructors on deck at the time of the accident and other staff were interviewed during the investigation, White said that the "swim group" that Josh was part of when he went under is randomly put together after recruits jump from the tower for the "abandon ship" exercise.

"The identity of members of the swim group is not documented," White said.

Isaac said that she has heard rumors that Josh asked for help before going under, and that she has spoke with different people present at the time who have given her conflicting stories.

"No one has reported any sign of seeing Private Isaac in distress prior to his collapse," White said. "While the Marine Corps empathizes with Malia Isaac's anger and frustration about what happened to her son, the Marine Corps respectfully disagrees with the inference that negligence somehow accounted for her son's condition."

Coping

Malia Isaac visits her son every day while his sister and dad make the trip several times a week.

"If you go in and he's awake, his eyes open," she said. "There are days when I honestly think he sees me and knows it's me, and I talk to him. We watch movies with him, or read to him."

Different therapies have been tried to get Josh to respond, Isaac said. One stimulation program involved trying to arouse Josh's senses by putting different things in his mouth to trigger a taste response. Scents were used, and gentle noises were played near his ears in hopes of eliciting a reaction, but to no avail.

"There's really no hope for recovery," Isaac said with the voice of a woman who is coming to accept a loss she finds unacceptable and inconceivable: the loss of her boy.

"There are times when his friends will come home from college and they'll come visit him," she said. "And I think, this just can't be real. He's in a nursing home. What is my 20-year-old doing with 80-year olds?"

"He was just trying to do something financially to make it easier on us. I know for a fact that's why he enlisted, and that hurts," she said. "I would have found the money somehow."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

June 28, 2005
Swim instructor faulted in
recruit’s drowning death
By C. Mark Brinkley
Times staff writer

A female swim instructor working with a recruit in a pool at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C., missed or ignored the warning signs of trouble and allowed him to drown, according to an investigation report on the death released today.
Jason Tharp, 19, of Sutton, W.Va., died Feb. 8 after being pulled unconscious from the pool during his fifth and final day of water survival training.

The death made national headlines after WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C., aired footage of the previous day’s training that showed Tharp’s senior drill instructor berating, grabbing and elbowing the recruit for refusing to swim.

The swim instructor, a staff noncommissioned officer who was working one-on-one with Tharp, will face an Article 32 investigation into the events of Tharp’s death to determine whether she should face court-martial or other disciplinary action, Parris Island officials said.

The senior drill instructor, and an officer who witnessed the alleged abuse but failed to report it, could still face disciplinary action including criminal charges, Parris Island officials said. The investigation report is still under review by the recruit training regiment commander, and decisions on how to proceed are pending.

The investigation also recommended disciplinary actions for a second enlisted swim instructor, who allegedly threatened to throw Tharp into the pool if the recruit refused to enter on his own. Decisions on how to proceed are pending while the investigation is reviewed by the recruit training regiment commander, Parris Island officials said.

C. Mark Brinkley is the Jacksonville, N.C., bureau chief for Marine Corps Times. He can be reached at (910) 455-8354.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Report: Recruit's death 'preventable'
Instructor faces disciplinary action for violation of standard training procedures
Published Wednesday June 29 2005
By GEOFF ZIEZULEWICZ
The Beaufort Gazette


Three Marines face disciplinary action and a fourth could stand trial after a Marine probe released Tuesday found the Feb. 8 drowning of a Parris Island recruit happened because of training violations.
Jason Tharp, 19, of Sutton, W.Va., died during his fifth week of training in a depot pool during water combat survival training.

The water instructor working with Tharp failed to recognize or ignored indications that the recruit was too tired or incapable of continuing the swim training, failing to prevent an unsafe situation from occurring, according to a Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island news release.

As a result, a hearing equal to a grand jury investigation will be held regarding the instructor's actions. The grand jury hearing could lead to a court-martial. Military lawyers will explore the evidence in the case and draft any charges for the hearing, said recruit depot spokesman Maj. Ken White.

"It could be a court-martial; it could not be," he said, adding that there is no timetable for the charges.

White would not identify the primary instructor or the three other Marine trainers because of internal privacy policies. The instructor's name would be made available if a court-martial occurs, he said. Disciplinary action is being considered against an unidentified water survival instructor who warned Tharp that he would be thrown in the pool if he did not go in on his own, the release states.

The investigation also found that another drill instructor violated the physical contact rules when he grabbed Tharp by the shirt and struck him with his forearm a day before the recruit's death, the release states.

The incident gained national attention after a visiting TV crew caught the contact on tape.

A series commander who witnessed the incident and did not report it is also facing disciplinary action, White said.

A separate investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service found no evidence of criminal conduct or intentional wrongdoing in connection with the drowning, the release states. A third investigation by Headquarters Marine Corps involving safety procedures is not available to the public, White said.

Parris Island's commanding general is directing the recruit depot to change protocol for water survival instructors, and other procedures will be amended and explored, he said. One such possibility is a camera above and below water at the depot pool.

The last drowning at Parris Island was in 1991, White said.

"If there is anything people can take away as a learning point from this, we're going to seize the opportunity," he said.

The investigation released Tuesday provides glimpses of the problems Tharp had with the swim qualifications at Parris Island, including the 4-minute flotation part of water combat survival training. On Feb. 7, Tharp refused to get into the pool and was grabbed and hit by an instructor -- a violation of rules governing recruit contact, according to the report.

That night, another recruit gave Tharp tips for passing the qualification, the report states.

"I asked him if he wanted to be at recruit training, and he told me he wanted to be here and wanted to graduate so our entire platoon could graduate together and get off the island as brothers," the unidentified recruit told investigators.

Tharp's father, John Tharp, said earlier this year that Jason had written home saying he wanted to leave training.

"There are kind of mixed signals in terms of what was reported that he told his parents and what he told recruits and drill instructors," White said.

Another witness told investigators that Tharp had said no when asked if he wanted to be a Marine during his swim training, according to the report.

On Feb. 8, Tharp struggled again with the flotation portion of the qualification, the report states.

"I observed and overheard a swim instructor yelling at recruit Tharp," according to the testimony of another recruit in the report. "It appeared (Tharp) was hesitant to get in the pool, and the swim instructor was telling him, 'Shut up. Get in the water. Shut up. Get in the water.'"

That swim instructor is the one facing the military trial, White said.

One of the instructors facing disciplinary action told Tharp he can either get in the pool or be thrown in. That instructor later said that the warning was to get Tharp to train.

Later that day, Tharp got into the water and kept having trouble inflating his shirt, which requires him to put his face underwater to blow it up, according to witness accounts in the report.

"He was doing fine until he had to float without holding onto the wall," according to witness testimony contained in the report. "Once he let go of the wall, he would panic and bob under water."

At one point, Tharp cried, "Let me out!" according to witnesses in the report.

Out of frustration, the swim instructor shoved Tharp's head deeper into the water as he attempted to blow up his flotation shirt, the report states.

This shoving, while against the rules, had no relation to Tharp's death because the recruit was not coughing, gagging or vomiting water until the last time he went under, the report's opinion section states.

"This act was too far removed in time from the drowning to be an immediate cause of death," the report states. "The drowning occurred at least 4 minutes later, up to 10 minutes later."

The report states that the flotation exercise allows for a variety of techniques that include treading water and using the inflatable shirt. White said that it is the instructor's decision which technique will be used to pass the qualification and maintain safety.

"It's a judgment call of the instructors," he said.

The swim instructor could have instructed Tharp to just tread water, which might have prevented his death, but not doing so was not a direct cause of the death, the report states.

Any case built against the swim instructor would require the substantiation of several sometimes-conflicting eyewitness accounts, White said.

"The lawyers have to boil all this evidence down for the establishment of specific charges," he said. "If we find anything, it will be reflected on the charge sheet. I'm not sure if it holds water or not."

Tharp had been treated for an upper respiratory infection and had complained of a sore hip, but had no other medical conditions at the time of his death, White said.

Tharp's father said Tuesday that he was satisfied, for the most part, with the Marine Corps report on the death of his son.

"The Marines talked to us for almost three hours and explained everything that happened," he said. "We were surprised they came out and admitted there was wrongdoing. We knew it was a wrongful death."

While the investigation takes the death of his son one step closer to some sense of closure, John Tharp said he is not there yet.

"There won't be any closure until we see what happens to these people," he said. "We were so afraid this was going to be covered up. He should have been able to come home."

Ellie