5 Who Led Fatal Army Exercise Are Suspended

Two officers and three instructors assigned to supervise the training in which four Army Ranger students were killed last month were suspended Tuesday.

The Rangers died of exposure in the swamps of Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., after spending up to eight hours in chest-deep, 52-degree water during the last phase of the grueling training.

Maj. Gen. John. W. Hendrix, Ft. Benning’s commanding officer, suspended the officers and instructors with pay as part of an investigation into the deaths, said Sgt. Caejar Cox, a spokesman for Ft. Benning, headquarters of the Ranger Training Battalion.

Hendrix chose to suspend the officers and instructors Tuesday because training for the next Ranger class resumed in Florida that day.

“The general thought it was a prudent thing to do because the class was coming in today,” Cox said. “It’s only temporary, with pay. It’s not punitive and will continue until results of the investigation are made public.”

Ft. Benning had said earlier that training in the water would be halted until the investigation was completed. Cox said he did not know if the new class would include any water training.

Those suspended include the battalion commander, a company commander and three noncommissioned officers who were instructors assigned to the 6th Ranger Battalion at Camp James E. Rudder, Fla. The camp is the Ranger outpost in a secluded section of Eglin, on the Florida panhandle.

Cox said the names of those suspended could not be released under the Army’s privacy regulations. These regulations allow Hendrix to either reinstate all or some of the officers and instructors or relieve them of their duties.

Any details regarding involvement of any other officers or instructors will not be released until the investigation is completed, Cox said.

One of the students, Capt. Milton Palmer, 27, of Fishers, Ind., died after a helicopter rescued him and another trainee who were stricken with hypothermia while in a section of swamp that was deeper than expected because of recent rains and only 2 degrees above a safety limit. The other trainee survived.

At about the same time, two more trainees were stricken with hypothermia, but heavy fog prevented a helicopter from reaching them and they weren’t rescued for another 4 1/2 hours.

The two, 2nd Lt. Curt G. Sansoucie, 23, of Somersworth, N.H., and Sgt. Norman Tillman, 28, of Grenada, Miss., both died.

The fourth victim, 2nd Lt. Spencer D. Dodge, 25, of Stanley, N.Y., became separated from his fellow soldiers and his body was found the next morning.