thedrifter
09-10-06, 06:31 AM
Posted on Sun, Sep. 10, 2006
Parris Island recruit dies on way to hospital
He had been participating in test to determine basic physical condition
By SANDRA WALSH
swalsh@beaufortgazette.com
A Parris Island recruit died Saturday morning while being transported to Naval Hospital Beaufort after participating in a strength test at the depot, according to Marine officials.
Parris Island spokesman Maj. Guillermo Canedo said the male recruit, whose name wasn’t released Saturday, suffered from an undetermined condition while participating in an initial strength exam designed to test recruits’ basic physical readiness before training begins.
To pass the exam, a recruit must complete 40 crunches, two pull-ups and a 13-minute or under 1.5-mile run, according to a release from Parris Island.
Canedo said he didn’t know which portion of the exam the recruit was attempting before he was transported to the hospital but that the recruit was on an exercise field when he began showing signs of struggling.
He said the recruit likely arrived on Parris Island sometime earlier in the week because the strength test is one of the first steps in processing a recruit.
Canedo said the initial strength training test conducted on Parris Island is not the first physical conditioning a recruit receives, however.
After a 17- or 18-year-old is recruited, they are placed in a “delayed entry program pool” and assessed at a Military Entrance Processing Station run by the Department of Defense, he said. The processing station checks if the recruit is physically, mentally and morally fit to begin training, according to Canedo.
“If they have asthma or a heart murmur they won’t make it,” he said. “Pre-existing conditions prohibit you from joining the Marines.”
Saturday’s incident was the first in which a recruit died on Parris Island since the Feb. 8, 2005, drowning death of 19-year-old recruit Jason Tharp. Tharp died in a pool while struggling to pass a combat water survival test.
No further details about Saturday’s incident or the identity of the recruit will be released until the man’s family has been notified and the cause of death is confirmed, Canedo said.
Walsh is a reporter for the Beaufort Gazette, a McClatchy newspaper.
Ellie
Parris Island recruit dies on way to hospital
He had been participating in test to determine basic physical condition
By SANDRA WALSH
swalsh@beaufortgazette.com
A Parris Island recruit died Saturday morning while being transported to Naval Hospital Beaufort after participating in a strength test at the depot, according to Marine officials.
Parris Island spokesman Maj. Guillermo Canedo said the male recruit, whose name wasn’t released Saturday, suffered from an undetermined condition while participating in an initial strength exam designed to test recruits’ basic physical readiness before training begins.
To pass the exam, a recruit must complete 40 crunches, two pull-ups and a 13-minute or under 1.5-mile run, according to a release from Parris Island.
Canedo said he didn’t know which portion of the exam the recruit was attempting before he was transported to the hospital but that the recruit was on an exercise field when he began showing signs of struggling.
He said the recruit likely arrived on Parris Island sometime earlier in the week because the strength test is one of the first steps in processing a recruit.
Canedo said the initial strength training test conducted on Parris Island is not the first physical conditioning a recruit receives, however.
After a 17- or 18-year-old is recruited, they are placed in a “delayed entry program pool” and assessed at a Military Entrance Processing Station run by the Department of Defense, he said. The processing station checks if the recruit is physically, mentally and morally fit to begin training, according to Canedo.
“If they have asthma or a heart murmur they won’t make it,” he said. “Pre-existing conditions prohibit you from joining the Marines.”
Saturday’s incident was the first in which a recruit died on Parris Island since the Feb. 8, 2005, drowning death of 19-year-old recruit Jason Tharp. Tharp died in a pool while struggling to pass a combat water survival test.
No further details about Saturday’s incident or the identity of the recruit will be released until the man’s family has been notified and the cause of death is confirmed, Canedo said.
Walsh is a reporter for the Beaufort Gazette, a McClatchy newspaper.
Ellie