What Happened When a Terrorist Died in a Marine Commando’s Arms? A True Story

TL;DR

A marine commando describes holding a captured terrorist who bit a cyanide capsule, convulsed for about 45 seconds, and died despite a medic’s instinct to help. He explains how the 96-hour, no-sleep ordeal of hell week and high-risk drills hardened him for this first encounter with death. Read on for specific details about the incident, training, fear, and hostage-rescue simulations.

Transcript

some of the best minds in the world bringing you some of the best knowledge on drs clips have you been in hand to hand combat situations i have not been to hand to hand but i've caught a terrorist who just bit a cyanide in my hand when i was holding him and for the first time my life you know the ltd guys they have a cyanide capsule hanging in the ... Read More

Key Insights

• 😀 Armed forces personnel often face complex moral dilemmas in combat, balancing their duty with a deep sense of humanity.
• ❓ Marine commando training emphasizes not just physical endurance but also mental resilience to prepare soldiers for extreme scenarios.
• 🐕‍🦺 Experiences like "hell week" serve to bond trainees and instill a sense of elite identity among them, reinforcing their commitment to service.
• ✋ Effective training includes rigorous simulations, such as hostage rescue drills, which prepare commandos for real-world situations with high-stakes decision-making.
• 🎭 Trust in instructors and training regimens is crucial; it fosters confidence that enables commandos to perform effectively under pressure.
• 😨 The psychological aspect of fear can be transformed into a strategic advantage; it encourages heightened awareness and better planning in combat situations.
• 🤩 Self-visualization plays a key role in motivating volunteers who undergo intense training, as they aspire to excel and attain an iconic status within the military.

Questions & Answers

Q: What happened when a terrorist died in the marine commando’s arms?

The commando was holding a captured terrorist when the man bit a cyanide capsule. The terrorist convulsed for about 45 seconds and produced froth, while a sailor trained as a medic instinctively tried to help before being stopped to prevent him from dying too.

Q: Why did the medic try to save the captured terrorist?

The speaker says armed forces personnel are normal human beings who fire because an opponent may kill them. Once the terrorist was lying unarmed and dying, the medic’s natural tendency was to help him, though the group ultimately decided that attempting mouth-to-mouth assistance was too dangerous.

Q: How did Marine Commando training prepare the speaker for witnessing death?

The incident was the speaker’s first encounter with death, when he was about 28 or 29 and had recently completed the Marine Commando course. He believes the course kept him from being shattered because its training simulated near-death situations and made participants more hardened.

Q: What does hell week involve in Marine Commando training?

Hell week is described as 96 hours of nonstop physical training without sleep. Trainees lift logs, swim long distances, fire weapons, and complete obstacle courses, receiving food three times daily, plenty of water, and only one or two morning hours for shaving, routine tasks, and changing clothes.

Q: Do trainees hallucinate or give up during hell week?

The speaker says some people hallucinate and some give up, although he had not seen many Marine Commando trainees quit. Because hell week occurs around the middle or later part of the course, participants have already become more accustomed to the demands.

Q: Why did the speaker not give up during Marine Commando training?

He says he simply did not feel like giving up and remained in a flow. He also explains that volunteers enter after deciding they will finish and visualizing what they want to become, while activities such as skydiving, paratrooping, karate, and weapons training add a glamour factor for young trainees.

Q: How demanding was the speaker’s underwater-diving training?

His course included a different version of hell week involving 18 hours of underwater diving. He describes it as dangerous and exhausting, saying that one hour of diving was treated as equivalent to eight hours of physical labor on the surface.

Q: How does the room-intervention hostage-rescue drill work?

A team of six commandos and six partners had 12 to 14 seconds to enter and sanitize a complex structure of seven or eight rooms. They had to distinguish red and green head cutouts, avoid hitting the green targets, and fire two head shots within the four seconds during which a startled person was expected not to react; the shooting pass requirement was 95%.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The speaker recounts a harrowing experience of encountering a terrorist who attempted suicide by biting a cyanide capsule, showcasing the moral dilemmas faced by armed forces members in critical situations.

• The marine commando training, particularly "hell week," is described as a rigorous, mentally challenging experience that prepares soldiers for near-death situations and builds resilience against adverse conditions.

• The importance of trust in training methodologies, instructors, and self-confidence is emphasized, highlighting how these factors contribute to effective performance in high-risk scenarios.