An SAS training officer has told an inquest into the deaths of three reservists who collapsed during a gruelling mid-summer training march that he did not adhere to Ministry of Defence guidelines on heat stress.
The officer, identified only by his cipher Soldier 9F, also claimed that stopping selection tests in the face of heat casualties, as stipulated in MoD documents, was “not an option” given the intensity of special forces training.
During his testimony to an inquest in Solihull, West Midlands, the training officer was accused at one point of having a “Darwinian approach” to the fatal march on the Brecon Beacons in south Wales.
L/Cpls Craig Roberts and Edward Maher and Cpl James Dunsby died after suffering hyperthermia as temperatures reached 27C (80.6F) during the test in July 2013. At least seven more reservists suffered heat injuries during the exercise.
The inquest has heard claims that the march was not called off because it would have generated too much paperwork. Candidates have given vivid accounts of running out of water, collapsing and having to be helped by civilians.
Invited by Birmingham coroner Louise Hunt to give his view of a heat stress chart in an MoD force protection and treatment document dealing with climatic injury, 9F said: “We could not do what we do if we adhered to those guidelines. It would significantly inhibit the type of training and the selection that we are trying to achieve. Stopping the training because it reached a certain heat stress was not an option for me.”
Referring to the official heat illness document as a “pamphlet”, 9F added that members of his unit were required to deploy anywhere in the world at 24 hours’ notice and work in conditions where acclimatisation was “limited if not non-existent”. He said he believed he was able to diverge from the MoD guidelines “because guidance implies that it is only guidance”.
After being asked how important personal administration was to heat illness, 9F said: “It’s fundamental that the individuals take a responsibility for this themselves. This is not routine training; this is a voluntary course that they spend years preparing themselves for mentally and physically. The next phase we take the students on is to the jungle.”
David Turner QC, representing the widow of Dunsby, put a series of questions to 9F after asserting that his evidence seemed “to suggest a Darwinian approach to this exercise”.
Turner asked 9F: “In relation to test week, are you looking for personnel who will take themselves beyond the limits of where they have been before?”
9F answered: “One of the primary things we are looking for in our students is maturity of judgment. I think all of them by their very nature want to be special and want to be the best they can be.”
Earlier, an army reservist, who treated casualties during the fatal march, told the inquest he believed there were not enough medics stationed on the 16-mile route.
Combat medic 1U told the hearing he raised concern about medical staffing levels during previous military selection courses.
1U said there was “no wind at all” on the mountains, a situation he had never encountered before, and claimed he was not given a radio on the day of the march, involving 78 candidates, because “there weren’t enough to go around”.
1U told the inquest that problems with recruiting medics were ongoing: “We still don’t have enough medics to put on the ground.”
Meanwhile, the coroner refused to allow the release of witness statements, concluding that their publication could threaten any future criminal prosecutions.
The Guardian and other media organisations argued that in the interest of open justice, statements taken by detectives investigating the tragedy which were provided to the inquest should be released to allow the proceedings to be reported fully.
But the coroner said there would be a “clear and compelling risk” to any future criminal action by the police or the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) if they were published. She said the evidence she was relying on had been either given orally by witnesses or read out fully in open court.
The inquest continues.
