1953 — Sep 2, Drownings, US Army pontoon raft capsizes, Smith Lake, Fort Bragg, NC–20

–20 Altoona Mirror, PA. “Dangerous Training” [Editorial]. 9-5-1953, p. 10.
–20 Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC. “The ‘Accidental’ Death Statistics…” 9-26-1953, p. 4.
–20 Florence Morning News, SC. “Army Justice” [Editorial]. 10-29-1953, p. 4.
–20 Panama City News-Herald, FL. “Seek Cause of Mass Drowning.” 9-6-1953, p. 5.
–20 Redlands Daily Facts, CA. “Army Probes Cause of Raft Accident…20 Died.” 9-3-1953, 2.
–20 Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Training Inadequate” [Editorial]. 9-4-1953, p. 4.

Narrative Information

Sep 3: “Fort Bragg, N.C. (UP) – The Army today sought to fix the blame for the drowning of 20 young recruits from the East in a training disaster which followed the capsizing of a pontoon raft in a shallow lake here. Base officials believed confusion and freight contributed to making this the Army’s worst such tragedy since World War II.

“Only two persons survived yesterday after the propeller driven raft, formed by two sections of pontoon bridge belted together to form an assault boat, tipped over 100 yards from the shore of the 10-foot deep lake.

“Lt. Robert D. Cargill, base public information officer, said investigators had already begun ‘questioning all persons connected with the accident’ but plans were not completed for any formal hearing or other official action. Cargill said the 20 victims and the two survivors were all privates and members of the 931 Engineer Construction Battalion. Their ages ranged from 19 to 24. He said the engineer trainees were practicing navigation of the raft, clad in loose fitting fatigues, combat boots and ammunition belts, after constructing it themselves of two portable bridge sections. ‘While making a turn it is believed they shipped a little water over the bow and several men became frightened – I won’t say panicky,’ Cargill said. ‘They shifted weight apparently to one side, causing it to capsize.

“Rescuers arrived within minutes and worked feverishly to save the men, aided a short while later by ambulances, helicopters and small boats that were rushed to the spot, but only two could be revived.” (Redlands Facts, CA. “Army Probes Cause of Raft Accident…” 9-3-1953, p. 2.)

Sep 4: “The army has indicated that panic was responsible for the drowning of 20 soldiers in a lake on the Fort Bragg reservation. According to an informal report, 40 men were being given an orientation ride on engineer assault boats. The boat made a turn and hit a wave that it had stirred up. Water shipped over the bow and some of the men moved back in panic, so that the boat capsized.

“What caused the soldiers to become panicky? Well, a little farther on the unofficial report says: “Many of the men, most of whom were trainees, could not swim. One survivor reported, ‘I started to swim away and two or three guys started grabbing at me’. ”

“Yet the report stated that the officer in charge ‘was observing and enforcing all normal safety precautions.’ It added that the men ‘were not wearing life preservers and it’s not normal for this type of training.’

“An inquiry has been ordered. The unofficial report already issued, however, gives an indication of what may be expected: a statement taking pains to clear the officer in charge of any blame, and holding the enlisted men responsible for the accident because they became panicky. Yet the circumstances — half of the men dead a short time afterward — indicate very good reason for panic.

“If the death of these 20 men is to serve any good purpose, the board of inquiry will need to go beyond this one accident and investigate the army’s ‘normal safety precautions.’ It might go back to World War II and inquire how many men died in assault landings without a scratch on them, drowning because they never were trained to swim….

“…swimming instruction apparently is not one of the Army’s ‘normal safety precautions.’ It is easier to blame the enlisted men for becoming panicky than to show them how to avoid death by drowning.” (Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Training Inadequate” [Editorial]. 9-4-1953, p. 4.)

Sep 5: “Now that 20 GI’s undergoing recruit training at Fort Bragg, N. C., lost their lives at the camp while erecting a bridge “in the regular course of training,” an investigation has been ordered, but it’s too late to do any good. The army should have investigated and provided for safety long before the Fort Bragg accident took 20 lives.

“The recruits, given basic engineer training, were drowned when an assault boat capsized on Smith lake at the military base. Defense department officials termed the accident “the worst non-aerial military training accident since World war II.” The services sort of expect air mishaps daily.

“The inexperienced recruits, weighted down by heavy paratrooper boots, loose-fitting fatigues, ammunition belts and filled canteens, occupied an 18-foot wooden raft, equipped to carry 25 persons. The men accepted a ride after completing their training exercise.

“The happening is just another strange episode in the history of “so-called” realistic training that the system provides for recruits. Safety, somehow or other, never enters into the picture. Making field training resemble actual warfare is a wholly unnecessary tactic, whereas training to be able to defend oneself should be basic. Unnecessary risks are frowned upon by everybody except the training officers, who want to be tough, and are tough, on volunteers, on recruits and selectees.

“Taking the danger out of military and out of all the service courses, especially in peace times, should be considered through the investigation now being planned. It’s useless to risk young lives “practicing,” because there’s danger enough in war times and youthful soldiers, sailors and marines can generally take pretty good care of themselves when they realize their dangers. They certainly don’t expect “dangers” in training, yet training courses are killing courses.

“Inexperienced recruits, entrusted to the care of the government for training, deserve better care than they are getting in many instances, as recent accidents will show.” (Altoona Mirror, PA. “Dangerous Training” [Editorial]. 9-5-1953, p. 10.)

Sep 6: “Fort Bragg, N.C. (UP) – The Army today planned a formal inquiry to decide whether ‘over-loading’ or ‘panic’ caused an assault boat to capsize on a shallow lake here, drowning 20 young recruits.

“Investigators yesterday issued an interim report declaring the boat did not carry an excessive load and an officer in charge was ‘observing and enforcing all normal safety precautions’ when it overturned.

“But two survivors who were hospitalized for shock after the accident Wednesday said in statements released by base officials that the boat appeared overcrowded and was ‘riding deep in the water.’….

“The Army said 40 soldiers…were aboard the craft formed by two sections of pontoon bridge when it overturned 100 yards from shore, dumping the men into the water.” (Panama City News-Herald, FL. “Seek Cause of Mass Drowning.” 9-6-1953, p. 5.)

Sep 26: “The recent sacrifice of 20 young American boys at Fort Bragg in an ill-advised, mis-directed amphibious assault training program, merely serves to revive interest, temporarily, in such losses. The extremes are found in many phases of training, where recruits without experience, screened not too well mentally and physically, are subjected to unnecessary dangers. Simulated battle conditions in which live explosives are employed to expel all calibers of bullets and projectiles from muzzles of guns have killed many American boys before their time. In the home these are stark, realistic tragedies. Officially, a shrug. ‘These arc to be expected percentage-wise.’….

“The Daily News, Greensboro, comments editorially, “That Fort Bragg Disaster:”

It is a severe indictment which an Army investigating board has brought in connection with the Ft. Bragg tragedy of some weeks ago when 20 persons were drowned after an assault boat sank during a training maneuver.

In marked contrast to an interim report, which held that the catastrophe resulted from panic and that all normal precautions were being observed and enforced at the time, this later report, compiled by a board of eight senior officers, declared that the craft was overloaded and improperly operated at the time of its sinking.

The error of the earlier report was obvious. When soldiers are loaded onto an assault craft and sent into amphibious operations without first being taught how to swim or otherwise equipped with life preservers, no one in his right mind can say that safety precautions are being observed and enforced. If the Army held such laxity “normal”, then the Army’s definition of “normal” ought to be drastically revised. The fact that these young soldiers, green draftees, were not so trained or equipped naturally made them panicky.

But let the board of inquiry list contributing causes of the tragedy, which cost the lives of 20 young Americans, as it found them.

Inclusion of non-swimmers in the boat without adequate safety precautions.

Movement caused by panicky soldiers.

Lack of command supervision by responsible personnel.

“The Daily News trusts that this report and the conditions which it reveals will not be left suspended in mid-air. First of all those responsible for causes which entered into the tragedy should be disciplined in line with whatever degree of culpability the facts reveal. In the second place, there should be careful re-examination of Army policies and practices in this particular field of training and service, and those weaknesses, deficiencies and omissions rectified so that further disaster will not result.

“These young draftees may not mean so much to the Army but they mean the world and all to their families and loved ones.” (Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC. “The ‘Accidental’ Death Statistics in the Army Would Prove Interesting.” 9-26-1953, p. 4.)

Oct 29, Florence Morning News (SC) Editorial: “The Army’s clearing of two Fort Bragg officers in the drowning of twenty, recruits during river-crossing training there last month will not set well in many civilian minds. Through due process of court martial, the Army has received the facts and rendered a verdict. It appears a just verdict, though many doubtlessly will charge “whitewash.” Clearing the officers of blame in the tragedy in no way indicates an attitude of callousness toward human life.

“The profession of arms is inherently dangerous. That must be remembered. Normal precautions were taken during the river-crossing training that took the lives of the young soldiers.

“Normal precautions were not enough to ward off the killer — panic. Panic sometimes can be foreseen. But panic cannot be guaranteed against. It was panic among the soldiers tossed into the lake that caused the toll. If presence of mind had prevailed . . . but it didn’t.

“Panic is a human saboteur that defies the most thorough plans. It invades the soul and there is no man who can erect a barrier against it in another man.

“For the Army to have placed the blame for the accident on the officers, we feel, would have been a case of blinding justice.” (Florence Morning News, SC. “Army Justice” [Editorial]. 10-29-1953, p. 4.)

U.S. Department of the Army: “Soldier’s Medal. – By direction of the President, under the act of Congress approved 2 July 1926 (WD Bul. 8, 1926), the Soldier’s Medal for heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy on the date indicated is awarded posthumously to the following-named enlisted man:

“Private Charles R. Pond, Corps of Engineers, United States Army, a member of Company A 981st Engineer Construction Battalion, distinguished himself by heroism at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on 2 September 1953. Private Pond was a member of an assault boat crew operating a boat which was participating in a class on Light Stream Crossing Equipment (Infantry Support Raft). In making a turn, the boat started to ship water and the passengers shifted to one side, causing it to overturn. Approximately one-half of the passengers were unable to swim. Private Pond, who was a swimmer, remained calm and began to place non-swimmers on the overturned boat. With complete disregard for his safety, he swam to the nearest bank with a non-swimmer, a feat which he repeated twice. On a subsequent trip to the scene of the accident, he became exhausted and called for assistance, but the rescue boat could not reach him in time to save him from drowning. Private Pond’s courageous and heroic action in this emergency prevented the loss of life of several of his fellow soldiers and reflects great credit on himself and the military service.” (Department of the Army. General Orders No. 26. Washington DC, 4-2-1954.)

Sources

Altoona Mirror, PA. “Dangerous Training” [Editorial]. 9-5-1953, p. 10. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=69819762

Daily Times-News, Burlington, NC. “The ‘Accidental’ Death Statistics in the Army Would Prove Interesting.” 9-26-1953, 4. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=38172255

Department of the Army. General Orders No. 26. Washington DC, 4-2-1954. Accessed at: http://www.armypubs.army.mil/epubs/pdf/go5426.pdf

Florence Morning News, SC. “Army Justice” [Editorial]. 10-29-1953, p. 4. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=51252546

Panama City News-Herald, FL. “Seek Cause of Mass Drowning.” 9-6-1953, p. 5. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=34846898

Redlands Daily Facts, CA. “Army Probes Cause of Raft Accident in Which 20 Died.” 9-3-1953, 2. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=13798827

Robesonian, Lumberton, NC. “Training Inadequate” [Editorial]. 9-4-1953, p. 4. Accessed at: http://www.newspaperarchive.com/FullPagePdfViewer.aspx?img=100934848