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The First National Guard Death For a Photo Op

Kirsten Fike (36) of the Pennsylvania National Guard, died yesterday leaving behind a 13 year old son:

“Fike deployed for two weeks of annual training in support of Operation Jump Start on Aug. 5. She was on her first mission Aug. 9 when she collapsed. Both a combat lifesaver and combat medic were at her location and provided immediate care. A short time later, paramedics arrived and she was airlifted to the hospital around 4 p.m.

Fike was part of a four-soldier team working a 12-hour mission and watching for illegal border crossings. She was helping re-erect netting that had blown down when she fell ill.”

In my military capacity, I have been pulling every string at my disposal to prevent this misguided policy of using National Guardsmen at the Border for Annual Training. The errors of this plan are growing and compunding everyday.

I have personally spoken to and given briefings to many State Adjutant Generals, their Staffs and two Governors.

I never thought to use the concept of acclimatization as another reason to end this misguided venture. There is simply not enough time in a two week Annual Training period to properly acclimate.

A National Guardsman is dead today because of a failure of her immediate Command, a failure of all those involved in the planning of Operation Jump Start and my own failure for missing such an important factor.

Update: From the “Ranger, Airborne, and other Elite School Students Heat Acclimatization Guide” published by The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine:

“Physically fit soldiers (APFT run times <14 min) should be able to achieve heat acclimatization in about one week. However, several weeks of living and working in the heat (seasoning) may be required to maximize tolerance to high body temperatures."

Note that the above listed run time of “<14 min" is not the US Army Standard. The vast majority of Soldiers, especially Reserve Component, are not that physically fit. That guide was published for Soldiers that are in top condition attending a very demanding school.

From the “Fort Bliss Standards Handbook:”

“Acclimatization to hot weather normally takes place gradually over a five to seven day period as an individual’s exposure to heat and level of activity is gradually increased.”

Allowing for one day of travel, she was only in he fourth day on the ground at Yuma performing a “12-hour mission and watching for illegal border crossings.” The average high temperature has been 105 degrees.

Three hours after my first post on this, I now know as fact that the only action taken by the National Guard in that area to “combat heat injury” was the distribution of “heat injury warning cards.” No attempt was made to acclimate “non-region” soldiers assigned to the border area. The Arizona National Guard has made no consideration for treating Soldiers that come from Pennsylvania differently than Soldiers assigned to local units. If I can find this out in three hours while I am on TDY, it will not take long for others to find this out. I am extremely confident that a whole line of National Guard Officers are hoping that the death certificate does not mention heat as a contributing cause of death.

Here is the bottomline. It is wrong to send Soldiers to the Border for two weeks because of a whole list of reasons. By the time they are fit (acclimated) and trained to do a job, it is time to go home. In order to make Operation Jump Start “work,” Command Leadership overlooked the glaring fact of heat injuries. A Heat Risk Matrix was not considered. Quite a few Officers need to think about retirement.

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