Camp Walker Officer Dies After PT

A US Army Major on Camp Walker has unfortunately passed away after doing PT:

About 200 people gathered in the Camp Walker Chapel on Friday afternoon to bid farewell to a fallen comrade, according to a news release.

Maj. Timothy Patrick Auvil, a 42-year-old transportation officer with the 19th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), died Monday after attending a physical fitness event at Camp Carroll.

“We have all lost a comrade this week but I believe it is our soldiers who have suffered the greatest loss,” said Capt. Byron Kemp, company commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 20th Area Support Group. “For them, he was a friend, a mentor, a father figure and a refuge from the storm.”

This unfortunately is not a rare occurrence. Every year I read about soldiers dieing after PT. I don’t know the particulars of the Camp Walker case, but the cases I have read about happen generally when someone who has maybe been on leave or reserve soldiers getting called up and in both cases are older soldiers and they take a PT test. Or the soldier is put on too challenging of an exercise for their fitness level; the soldier pushes themselves to much and ends up having a heart attack or over heating.

That is why it is important during PT to have ability groups to let soldiers work they way up in fitness. At Camp Stanley I once saw an NCO almost die after he had been with the unit one week and was on leave for 30 days and he was put on a 6 mile run that week and completed it but over heated and nearly died afterwords. Daily PT is another dangerous aspect of being a soldier that risk management needs to be used before executing to ensure everyone is doing PT to their ability level.