Darwin says, "Accepted into the Archive. (military darwin award, unconfirmed)"

. Polk LA.

When i was a young Private in the 82nd Airborne Division my Brigade went on its period training junket to Ft. Polk fore a three week training excersise. One of the many items brought up at briefings before a training mission of this proportion is the fact that there are alot of people who are unused to the training area running about at all times of day and night and in all kinds of vehicles, most of them by nature of being used by the military, are quite large.

At one point during the training we were given a reminder that when sleeping in the woods at night be sure that you are sleeping at the base of a large tree, drivers at night may or may not be wearing night vision equipment, and further are not familiar with the post and its roads. Sleeping next to a tree will insure that a misguided driver will at the least see the large tree and avoid it, thus ensuring your own safety even if the driver doesn't see you.

This reminder was given to us in the light of recent events that had taken the life of an Army Major, assigned to the our unit or to the locals as a "Observer Controler" I don't recall, although the latter seems likely as he decided to bed down one night on what he deemed was an unused old trail. One driver, either taking a wrong turn in the darkness, or detereming after looking at his map and deciding that this trail was the shortest route from point A to point found himself on that road and after a few disconcerting bumps continued to drive on. The Major was not alone though, and after being awoken by the vehicle a young private assigned as his radion operator/assistant roused himself from the base of a large tree several feet from the trail to discover the body of his charge and radioed in the situation. It was told to us that the Major, a man with a college degree, a commision from Congress and years worth of responsibilities including, reminding people to sleep away from roads and close to trees, was pronounced DRT (Dead Right There).

Submitted on 08/12/2009

Submitted by: Anonymous
Reference: Personal Account Sept. 1997

Copyright © 2009 DarwinAwards.com

Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
If he was one of the officers who was responsible for warning others then he definitely got what he deserved. Thanks for the story.

Candi said:
Definitely Keep: Personal Account
All the honors and degrees in the world don't equal common sense. Thanks for the story!

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