Posted on 09/17/2008 9:41:54 AM PDT by Rebelbase
FORT BRAGG (AP) — The Army says a Special Forces trainee found dead this summer during a land navigation exercise in North Carolina was bitten by a poisonous water moccasin, also known as a cottonmouth.
The military said Wednesday the autopsy of 20-year-old Pfc. Norman M. Murburg of Dade City, Fla., ruled out heat or dehydration as a cause of death. Murburg was bitten multiple times while training at the Hoffman training area near Fort Bragg's Camp Mackall.
Soldiers began searching for Murburg when he didn't return from the exercise. His body was found June 10. Authorities met with Murburg's family to explain the autopsy results.
Maj. Gen. Thomas Csrnko, who commands the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center, said the death reinforces the dangerous training for Green Beret candidates.
I've had this bastards chase me out of the water. If a mother moccasin has a nest of babies nearby watch out! We used to go around the beaches and hack them with machetes around the lake I grew up on. They eventually retreated to the south side of the lake where there were no houses.
My neighbors back in TX always advised to keep well away from creeks in our area, and that these were agressive
dangerous beasts unlike the copperheads.
Condolences on the loss of a brave man.
I guess another question investigators might have had concerned the location of the bites. Were the bites in unusual locations for snake bites?
My dear grandson, just out of a 15 monther in Afghanistan (second Vanity Fair Article in this issue (Oct) by Sebastian Junger on them - BATTLE CO., is headed for that training in Nov.
It puzzles me why they are still going through the jungle warfare training of the Vietnam era - when we are fighting in deserts and mountains?
To me, it's an unnecessary risk...not to mention training for the wrong kind of terrain...
An old girlfriend was walking down a lakeside road in southern Virginia when she saw a cottonmouth slide out across the street in front of her about 20 yards away. She stopped and waited but the snake stopped when she did. After a minute or two, she slowly started walking to the farside of the road and the snake moved across to the same side. She stopped and then started walking back toward the side the snake came from. The snake reversed course and started coming toward her. She backed up and was pondering her next move when over the hill came a nice big Chevy 4x4 truck driven by a local teenager. The truck pulled up and slammed on the brakes right over top of the snake grinding it into the pavement. He then backed up again and rested his back wheels on the snake and peeled out leaving a burning rubber-encrusted carcass.
He then pulled up to my girl friend, tipped his John Deere hat and said, “There, he won’t be giving you any more problems. Have a nice day!”
True story.
Prayers indeed for this brave young man and the family he leaves behind. A tragic and horrible way to die.
Which begs the question: why would we want to keep such a species of snake alive?
I say put a bounty on each cottonmouth head, and wipe the bastards out once and for all.
Plenty of other water snakes to take their place.
I doubt you have ever encountered one in the wild. They are quite aggressive. If you want to stick to your Penguins can tap dance utopian’s belief that these snakes aren’t aggressive then go right ahead.
I grew up in rattlesnake/copperhead country ~ you could encounter as many as 4 kinds of rattlers, several subspecies of copperheads (differentiated only by highly educated herpitologists), and, if you got down to Posey County, you could encounter a cottonmouth every now and then.
Best way to deal with poisonous snakes is to STAY AWAY. Find out what habitat they like locally, and don't go there.
In India highly poisonous snakes inhabit and love essentially the same habitat as human beings Besides, they are bigger! This leads to a higher number of snakebite deaths than here. However, my friends from India say they are taught the same lessons I learned ~ stay out of their habitat PLUS don't let your neighborhood get overrun with rats and mice or you will attract a big snake!
I grew up in rattlesnake/copperhead country ~ you could encounter as many as 4 kinds of rattlers, several subspecies of copperheads (differentiated only by highly educated herpitologists), and, if you got down to Posey County, you could encounter a cottonmouth every now and then.
Best way to deal with poisonous snakes is to STAY AWAY. Find out what habitat they like locally, and don't go there.
In India highly poisonous snakes inhabit and love essentially the same habitat as human beings Besides, they are bigger! This leads to a higher number of snakebite deaths than here. However, my friends from India say they are taught the same lessons I learned ~ stay out of their habitat PLUS don't let your neighborhood get overrun with rats and mice or you will attract a big snake!
I remember back in the late 50’s or maybe 60’s an Army Ranger training at Eglin AFB was bitten by a coral snake. They literally had a jet fighter fly in anti-venom from New Orleans. The guy survived.
I was fishing with my brother in law and he poked one with a fishing rod. It chased him for 10 minutes until I finally shot it. It's the only time I've ever seen a snake chase someone.
I wonder if these reports of a skier getting into a “nest” are described that way because of the responders (or the victim) seeing numerous bite marks all over the victim. I did not know that cottonmouths would bite repeatedly - and would also have assumed multiple snakes.
I’m wary of rattlesnakes but not really afraid. I might need to start being afraid of cottonmouths!
I so hate cottonmouths. It’s one snake you can smell when its close. Kill everyone of them I see.
I’ve encountered them a few times, but only on land and found them to be rather timid there. Was within about 18 inches of one this past summer before I realized what was going on. It stayed perfectly still as I backed up and slithered off quite fast as soon as I turned my eyes from it.
SF train for ALL conflicts, not just the headline grabbing ones. Had a compatriot just complete SF Q course and is sporting the Green Beret now. He was violently ill for almost three weeks because of e-coli poisoning and still had events to complete. He managed to complete it while losing about 30 pounds.
The nest you describe is most likely a bunch of males swarming over one female. Cotton Mouth Gangbang.
“one morning one had come up through the septic system and was in the toilet.”
Not a pretty thought.
Prayers for the family of this serviceman.
The biggest problem with that snake is when a snake dealer lets one of 'em loose in the neighborhood. First folks to move to a motel for the night while the cops, et al, hunt for the snake are the Africans and the Indians.
They know.
Compared to a copperhead dozing under leaves in late Fall in Southern Indiana, a cottonmouth is probably quite aggressive.
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