A GS-13 civilian employee died in Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson’s emergency room on August 22, and the incident has kicked up a lot of dust. According to the official report released from The Air Force Service Watch Cell, a 33 year old male experienced an in-flight physiological event on a C-17 while participating in a high altitude air drop and began experiencing symptoms during repressurization of the aircraft. He was rushed to the ER upon landing where he became unstable. They also claimed he had underlying health conditions in addition to testing positive for COVID. After they were unable to stabilize him, he was pronounced dead. His cause of death was officially attributed to his underlying health issues. However, personnel at JBER tell a slightly different story.
According to sources within the hospital at JBER, the GS-13 (who I’ll refer to as GS) died from “hypoxia” brought on by “decompression.” The CCIR (Commander’s critical information requirements) attributed it only to underlying health issues. GS was conducting a planned, depressurized cargo drop with a planned, simulated, decompression, emergency drill (emergency drills are standard) when he collapsed during the drill. He did not collapse during the drop that had already taken place. The C-17 conducted an emergency landing and was rushed to the ER as he was unresponsive.
He was tested for COVID at the hospital where he was confirmed positive. It was also confirmed he had received the COVID vaccine. According to another source (not at JBER), his death was “labeled as a COVID death” at the Pentagon.
In response to the above text message, a source told me “Decompression sickness doesn’t instantly kill like that unless something else is at work; embolism wise or there being some kind of underlying medical issue.”
According to sources in the hospital, “emergency room staff dropped the ball.” GS came into the ER and waited for several hours for the doctor to do something. According to multiple individuals, the doctor who responded had to be called in because he “wanted to show to work late.” According to them, he was upset the waiting room was full and drug his feet to accept a patient. He audibly complained about wanting to do DTS and go to some training, then decided to finally respond to the patient struggling to breathe. Regardless, the standard of care was purportedly met.
Despite the email above stating “media attention is not expected” (I know, I’m not really media), the Base Commander and Air Force Surgeon General are both alleged to be very upset with an ensuing investigation set to take place. However, I doubt those results will ever see the light of day.
There are more questions here than answers. What underlying health conditions did this 33 year old have that allegedly caused him to get hypoxia in a C-17 during heavy drop operations? How did they so quickly ascertain that these so called underlying health conditions attributed to his death anyways? Wouldn’t that have been something that was identified prior to him conducting these operations in the first place? Unless, of course, it’s what we all think it was (or at least what I think it was), then of course it wouldn’t have been identified. Finally, why was it labeled as a COVID death at the Pentagon? FYI, that’s not speculation based on a loose source. It was definitely labeled as such.
I wouldn’t have batted an eye three years ago if you told me someone died of underlying health concerns during a military operation, but now I question ALL the unexplained deaths happening around us. If I find out more, I’ll update this story. However, I have a feeling this will be lost in the bin of “deaths due to climate change” and we won’t find out anything else.