As an old West Point mom, I guarantee you that the fluid intakes are monitored constantly, with the speakers calling out the heat index every 15 minutes or so.
My son explained to us that the upperclassmen stopped them during exercise, and made them drink until they “sloshed” when the heat index indicated it was necessary.
My guess is that this cadet was out in the field, maybe alone?, had plenty of water with him, and just neglected to do it. I hope this isn’t the case, because he seemed like he had enough prior training in high school sports to understand the importance of hydration.
But, we do not really know yet if heat/dehydration was the cause. There are deaths on the sports playing field every year, caused by undiagnosed rare heart defects that have not been picked up on the standard tests.
You would not believe how much care is taken to keep the cadets safe at West Point. My son lost a lot of weight during “beast barracks”, and the upperclassmen in charge would weigh him daily, and bring him additional food outside of the regular meals to try to help him keep from losing any more.
They do feed the cadets a humongeous amount of calories a day, but some of them lose weight at the beginning anyway, until they begin to put on some muscle.
They take it very seriously, and this is a tragedy. I weep for his parents, who have lost so much!
When I was going through Quantico in 68, the SNCOs were still having nightmares about the decade prior episode where where some DIs marched a platoon through the swamp and several died of exposure.
When I played ball in HS and college..coaches wouldn't allow us to drink during practice....it was a mark of weakness. Bear Bryant was famous for that. It's amazing that half of the SEC football teams of the 50's didn't drop dead during summer camp.