Norman M. Murburg
What a terrible way to die. Prayers for his family.
It took 4 months to determine the cause of death?
Horrible! Poor young man.
A water skiing buddy of mine wiped out in a nest of these critters. After pulling him out of the reeds he died in the boat heading back to shore. Never had a chance.
Cottonmouths are dangerous and will strike multiple times when threatened.
Prayers for the family and the other solders training in these dangerous conditions.
How very sad. Prayers for his family and friends. Thanks to the soldier for giving his life for the people of the USA.
Norman M. Murburg
I am so sorry to hear this. It’s the reptilian equivalent of being attacked by a tiger. They are aggressive biters that will pursue anything they consider to be a threat or prey, and they are capable of attacking multiple times...
Prayers for this young man’s family - may they be comforted knowing that his sacrifice for his country was not forgotten.
I have very few creatures I will shoot on site - but the cottonmouth (water moccasin) in one of those. However, not all water snakes are water moccasins, so I’ve gone to great lengths to learn to ID them properly. I also have tried to leave turtles and other snakes in my ponds to help control the water moccasin population naturally.
Hoffman is where the land navigation and (sometimes) the “events” for SF Selection take place..as well as large portions of the SF “Q” course...humped those sandy hills mucho...more than once was “busting a draw” only to realize that if i got hurt they’d find my body 6 months later if my family was lucky....
I can relate to this.
I got bit by a cottonmouth in 1959. We lived out in the boonies in Annapolis, Maryland and one morning one had come up through the septic system and was in the toilet. Since I was a kid and dumber than a rock, I tried to fish the snake out. It bit me and I then got to find out about anti-venom shots, tetanus immunizations, and several other things that were unpleasant.
I was really sick for about a week.
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 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 so hate cottonmouths. It’s one snake you can smell when its close. Kill everyone of them I see.
Prayers for the family of this serviceman.
I thought you still had to be Spec 4 or higher just to attend Q course. Did that change?
I’ve killed several of these over the past few years in my yard in Tampa. Usually a steel rake does the job. Last year, my dog killed one (almost, I finished it off). Not sure how he did it, but RikiTikiTavi comes to mind, only in the shape of a 95lb. Belgian Malinois.
Prayers for this young soldier's family...
I wonder how our Aussie allies handle snakes in their training. When I was down there, I saw species that make the worst of ours look like lawn ornaments.
When I lived down in Mississippi as a preteen, we had a Cajun boy from Louisiana stay with us for the summer ... one of Dad’s customer’s kids. We had a pond on the property loaded with Cottonmouths. One day the Cajun boy and I went out in the rowboat to fish, got bored and he said let’s swim. I warned him about the snakes but he said, “Naw don’t worry about ‘em, they can’t bite ya in the water or they’ll drown”. Well he was a high school kid so I figured he knew what he was talking ‘bout. We jumped in the water and you could see the “snakes hanging thick from the cypress trees like sausage on a smokehouse wall” (Jim Stafford song) plop into the water and headed for us. In our haste to get back in the boat, we turned it over. We were quite aways from the bank and had to swim for it. How we got out of that predictament is a miracle as neither of us were bit. God must have had other plans for us. Still gives me the shivers thinking about it. Never listen to a Cajun boy that’s older than you. Ooooo-weeeeeee!
When I was growing up, we had a half acre pond across the street from us. It attracted all kinds of snakes including moccasins. When I was 10 years old we had a drought, and the pond dried up to about 20 ft by 20 ft. Minnows and tadpoles were all concentrated in the remaining pond. The snakes were having a feast.
I walked out onto a narrow (maybe 3 feet wide) peninsula of land that stuck out into that drought-reduced pond. After a minute of standing at the end of the land looking at the pond, I heard some rustling in the thin weeds behind me. It was a 3 ft long cottonmouth about 18 inches from my leg. Its mouth was wide open and pointed in my direction. The snake hadn’t been there when I walked up. It was swishing the end of its tail back and forth in the weeds. That was what made the rustling sound.
It was a standoff. I didn’t want to make any sudden moves that would cause the snake to strike. Fortunately, I had my BB gun with me. It was cocked since I had been looking for something to shoot. I slowly twisted my upper body toward the snake without moving my feet. At the same time I slowly lowered the gun and aimed it at the roof of the cottonmouth’s open mouth.
I shot and the cottonmouth started twisting in pain. I kept cocking and shooting at its head as fast as I could. Eventually the snake stopped moving. It was probably just stunned as the BB gun was not all that powerful. I ran back to the house and told my dad, who then took a pistol over to the pond and finished the snake.
It is a wonder I ever grew up.