Risk Management Magazine

Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing and yelling that dramatic conditioning (read: television) prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life.

Eventually, the pressure became too much and the 2x4 broke loose and shot off the edge. Gravity won again, and I followed the board and slammed into the roof.

It was 3 a.m. on a Sunday when I received a call from the brigade staff duty NCO. As a company first sergeant, you dread the middle-of-the-night phone call because the news is never good. This call wasn’t an exception. One of our Soldiers had been involved in an accident just 200 meters away from the battalion and brigade headquarters. I hung up the phone, crawled out of bed and prepared for the worst.