Seaman James Derek Lovelace passes
A couple of folks have sent us a link to the sad news that 21-year-old Seaman James Derek Lovelace passed away last Friday during his first week of BUD/S training in Coronado, California;
Safety observers noticed he was having problems during the water familiarization exercise and pulled him out of the pool, the Navy said in a statement Tuesday.
“He was aided to the edge of the pool by instructors where he then lost consciousness. Resuscitation efforts and first aid at the scene were unsuccessful,” the Navy said.
It’s a reminder that training for war can be as deadly as the actual war. It’s also a reminder why we hate the posers so much when there are folks who die to achieve that which they simply buy at Ebay and pin on their phony uniforms.
Category: Navy
He died while serving our country.
If our nation survives, it will be because of men like this.
May he rest in peace.
Rest in peace, Shipmate and Brother.
“training for war can be as deadly as the actual war”. Thank you for the reminder Jonn.
Rest in peace now Brother. Thank you for giving your all. God be with your family now.
RIP young man
Off topic. I’m confused. I thought the Navy got rid of those uniforms he’s wearing (which I think look sharp btw)
Can some of you Navy folks enlighten me?
They’ll never get rid of crackerjacks.
They made changes to the working unis in the 2006 to 2008 timeframe… the dress whites and blues are still the “crackerjack” style.
Good to know.
I thought they went to a dark trouser and khaki shirt thing
Call me old fashion but I like my Sailors to look like Sailors.
If they did anything to improve crackerjacks, they would put the blue trim back on the whites. And reissue the old “flat hats.” Look a lot better than the current “squid lid,” the dixie cup.
Don’t worry, the girls are also wearing the crackerjacks now. And the dixie cups.
Oh, no. I was in one of the first boot camp companies (way back in 1980) that had them issued again after the ugly unis of the Zumwalt era. They are the best.
The dress blues are the quintessential fleet uniform. Fold it right and put it under your pan rack’s mattress and you will never have a wrinkle.
And…in the immortal words of SM1 Buddusky:
[Budduskey’s response to a woman’s sarcastic remark about his navy uniform] You know what I like most about this uniform? The way it makes your dick look.
Damn, sounds like a shallow water blackout. Had that happen a few times during Pre-SCUBASs and Indocs, but never even had to resuscitate any of them. We had a guy at 1st Recon that was training on his own and was found dead at the bottom of the pool.
RIP
If you’re talking about Jim B, he had actually cross-decked to the Navy in order to attend BUD/s at the time of his SWB/drowning.
As I understood, he was green lighted, but hadn’t made the move. I was away when it happened though. I was told, he was training furiously for it.
He was fully shipped over. It was pretty strange to have the USN CACO setting things up.
Got it. Thanks.
One of the reasons that the Boy Scouts hammer so hard on the buddy system. NEVER swim alone!
Rest Well
Salute…..
Thank you for your service, Seaman Lovelace, and may you rest in peace.
Fair winds and following seas, Seaman Lovelace. I hope your family and friends find peace and comfort, in time.
This is sad. He got so far and then it went sour on him. RIP, Lovelace
Geez that’s awfully young…what a loss for the nation. There are any number of shitbags walking around comfortable and we lose someone like this fine young sailor.
Indeed as others have said, rest in peace and may your family find some comfort in knowing you were following your dream.
That’s rough. He’s a NW FL kid like I was, just a couple ZIP codes away from my hometown. One of my good Frog brothers said it best concerning SN Lovelace: “This is way SEALs hate phonies – there are young men literally dying to earn the Trident”.
RIP
Indeed. We had a Marine get an arterial Gas embolism in the pool when a mobile training team was running a SCUBA class on Oki. He did well after that, but was permanently NPQ’d from diving duty.
Ya just never know.
My last Tour On the Drill Field The Regiment had two recruits die from swim training. One of them lingered for over a week but once you get water in your lungs you have infection to worry about.
RIP Sailor. Fine young man literally died trying to earn that trident and shitbags walking around with it hat never earned it.
He had the guts and drive to go for it and legitimately EARN what so many fakers simply buy and sport sans blood, sweat, tears and pain and some wonder why I hate posers like I do. Rest In Peace Young Warrior, you’ve earned your place in Valhalla.
Rest in peace, Sailor. May God comfort your surviving friends and family.
Rest well, Sailor.
Will he be “frocked” or promoted above the rank he had at the time of his death? I know it won’t be much, it won’t bring him back, but it would be a small token of recognition to his family for his efforts.
RIP
“This be the verse you ‘grave for me:
Here he lies where he long’d to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter, home from the hills”
Robert Lewis Stevenson
FW&FS Little Brother.
‘The guts to try’.
Blessings to His Family and Friends.
Rest in Peace Seaman Lovelace.
“…water familiarization exercise…”
Uh huh. They have a unique “way with words”.
Shallow water blackout can happen to anyone. He may also have had predisposing factors that led to a physiologic chain of events that resulted in cardiac arrest.
BUDS and the military diving community in general conduct some very physically demanding training, but things like this are extremely rare.
Addendum: Not to be unnecessarily blunt or insensitive..There is also the simple reality that if your heart stops, statistically even with advanced cardiac life support measures available, you have about a 96% chance of dying. Being in the oxygen deprived state of shallow water blackout is only going to decrease your odds of being successfully resuscitated even if no other abnormalities exist.
By ‘real’ shallow water blackout I’m talking serious repeated breath holds in training situations or going do or die on the impossible problem during pool comp.
That’s when I’ve seen it or been smacked by it the most.
Not an MD, Medic, Corpsman.
‘that led to a physiologic chain of events that resulted in cardiac arrest’
This was my first thought.
Early on, the guys are watched very, very closely in the water (until the ‘freak outs’ are all detected). Reading the article (I hadn’t asked around yet) I was figuring slim odds he aspirated, and I’m even doubting an ‘real’ shallow water blackout.
My hunch was some extreme physical stress, especially cardiovascular, and his (physical) heart just quit.
Never studied the actual statistics, but my general memory tells me that most of the guys who wind up KIT in 1st phase are heart attack deals.
While any loss of friendly life is deplorable, I would rather:
1) Have a risk of death in training than not. If there’s no risk of dyin’, yer not trainin’ hard enough!
2) Have it set up to happen in training – where there are instructors and competent personnel who may (hopefully) do something about it.
I suppose the “water familiarization exercise” was “drown-proofing”? That can induce a good deal of stress in a person – enough to trigger a cardiac event, if the potential is there (and rev up the heart until it’s pumping air.)
Yes, that man died, and it is truly a tragedy (he was undone by his own character – which drove him to try to become a SEAL. Not in the sense that the newsies over(mis)use the word…) But every effort was made, I’m sure, to save him, and better it happen at Coronado than on an operation somewhere…
As for my opinion on the matter? I sincerely hope that NOBODY takes this as impetus to make BUD/S any LESS difficult than it currently is. Or our SEALs will be dropping like flies in the field…
Looks like he died doing what he was anticipating he would enjoy, being a SEAL. There’s a price to pay for finding that peace of mind. He found his, trying to make this country one stronger. R I P sir.
May the family find solace in the support that he is receiving from so many that have tread the path he chose to walk down…
May he rest easy now and may his service be a testament to so many of the young people that have signed up to give back to the country that held them at its bosom…
It is young people like him that remind us that there are so many just like him that will refuse to allow this country to go by way of so many other civilizations…