Over the weekend, while I was at NAVSTA Great Lakes, unbeknownst to me,
An autopsy revealed that a Great Lakes Naval Training Center recruit found dead on Route 41 Sunday died of a mixture of drugs.
According to Lake County Coroner Dr. Richard Keller, 20-year-old James Stephens of Texas died because of a mixture of heroin, cocaine and an anti-anxiety drug called Benzo Diazepines.
Stephens body was found early Sunday near the Crossland Economy Suites, 1177 S. Northpoint Blvd., between routes 41 and 43 and south of Route 120. There were no signs injury or trauma.
He had not been in the Navy for very long (according to a Navy Times article):
Navy spokesman Matt Mogle said Stephens joined the Navy five months ago as a fireman recruit. Stephens was enrolled in an engineering program at Naval Station Great Lakes.
But again: how does something like this happen?
The young man had been in the Navy for all of 5 months, and now his division officer is going to be writing a letter to his family. Its not going to be a letter about how heroic he was. No, to the contrary it is going to be one that I don’t think any family would understand.
Who was watching out for him? I thought we were teaching our young men and women about teamwork and about how they need to take care of each other.
My heart goes out to his family.
If I remember my brother’s stories right– I went to Florida for A school, not across the road from boot camp– this guy would’ve been on his first week where he didn’t have to sign out with a buddy, and could stay out over night. If he was able to GET all that stuff, it pretty clearly wasn’t anything new.
Googling around, they think there was a “party” at the hotel.
I don’t know what it’s like in the places you served, but I know that everywhere I served there were some folks that would find trouble, and if they couldn’t, they’d make it.
Some were even decent folks, but there was just nothing short of total lockdown that would stop them– and sometimes, not even that.
I may be old fashioned on this sort of thing, but the man was just that – a MAN. He was also a sailor in the United States Navy, bound by rules and regulations to follow orders and that would include not doing illegal drugs. We in the Marine Corps made it clear and expected it done, or hammered the crap out of someone when they violated the rules and regs.
No sympathy, and the leadership has not a hair on their asses if they don’t rule it as “not in line of duty” when they make their determination.
He f@cked up and paid the price, and the reward for stupidity is sometimes death.
Foxfier – you are correct. There is always somewhere that you can get in trouble if you go looking for it (I went to Nuclear Power School in Orlando, prototype in Idaho, also stationed in Groton, Norfolk, and San Diego).
Steve – I agree to a point. What pisses me off are recruiters who let folks with major drug issues into the service. I don’t know that this was the case here, but you can definitely get that impression…
If incidents like this were common, which I do not believe they are, then I would say there was a breakdown in the chain of command at the base. But, what I think you have here is a kid living away from home for the first time who did something amazingly stupid and it cost him his life.
The exact same thing happens on college campuses every fall.
Bullnav -
Heh, you’re a nuke? But you seem so normal….. *teasing*
Foxfier – perhaps because I have not been aboard a submarine since late 1999 (SELRES since ’02)? Like I always told my fellow nukes: we are all geeks, some more so than others. I mean, every nuclear trained officer has either an engineering degree or physics or math…something technical. Its just the degree of geekitude.
to those that state he was a ‘man’….funny how the drinking age determines 21 at being an adult yet going into the service is 18- these are still YOUNG men that need guidance. Absolutely being at a ‘party’ is somewhat responsibility on this young sailor, but is DEATH his penalty for something grown MEN do still (drink and act stupid from time to time) i don’t think so, in addition the drugs and combination sounds to me like something odd is going on- I seriously doubt a young man that is open for drug testing at anytime would do this intentionally- in addition WHERE was his buddy? I know for a fact to go out at GL, while in school you are to be with a buddy…this sailor was found just laying there- the buddy system is in place to prepare these young men for times of war and to learn you don’t leave a shipmate behind and it is not about your life but your shipmates as well- so why isn’t this system being enforced here as well?
To you Steve, no sympathy? To me I find that very cold(by the way it happens in the Marine Corps too)- how many times have you been in a position that you ‘got through’ and simply wonder how? I certainly hope that one day something like this doesn’t affect you or someone you know personally and you hear someone spout their lack of sympathy. My daddy and husband were both Marines and neither of them were trained to be anything but honorable and upstanding- and sympathetic to tragedy; A tragedy that happens on bases and college campus’ way too often.
My son is attending A school in GL right now. We heard about the lockdown from him. Yesterday he said that he heard that the sailor who died did have his buddy with him and that his buddy was using drugs also. The buddy got scared when he realized that the guy was dying, and took him out of the hotel room where they were partying and left him in a ditch near the highway. This may just be rumor. I tried to find a news report about it but didn’t. It’s very sad to think that his family had to hear this news just when they thought that he was going somewhere with his life. I can’t even imagine.
Everywhere I go- there I am.
If this was an accident like getting hit by a car, I would indeed be sympathetic. When someone does something stupid, as well as dangerous, and then gets screwed up by it, it is not tragic, it is stupid, period. I don’t have time or inclination to feel bad for them. When one signs an oath and is told what to do or not to do, if one is honorable, they tow the mark, or accept the consequences when they don’t. What this turd did was ignorant and a total waste, but he CHOSE to do it anyway. As to that sort of thing happening in the Corps, yep, it sure does, and we used them to illustrate an example in how to f@ck up by the numbers, and if they survive, we BCD them out.
Steve-
I wouldn’t usually say this kind of thing- but you are ignorant and really the judgemental ‘crap’ you are saying is ridiculous and not only makes you a total ‘waste’ but you give a bad name to the Corps…..I assure you, the Corps does not stand for the hate and stupidity you do- so stand on your own with all your hate spouting and do the Corps a favor and don’t align them with your ‘crap’.
I am so sorry to hear of the loss of this man. Great Lakes Naval Station, is not the great place they claim to be. Perhaps there was abuse or stress directed at this young man and he couldn’t take it. I know how difficult this must be. As far as I am concerned the Navy is holding my son HOSTAGE on grounds of a medical discharge, Now they are lieing about the reason they are discharging him and holding him in a discusting facility called Ship 17. He has been there over a month now, just waiting to be processed out. Criminals are treated better. They don’t even have chairs to sit on. Would you like to sit on the floor for over a month? The Navy is capable of anything. I have unfortunately found that out. Whatever happened to this young man could very well not be his fault, no matter what the outward signs. My sympathy to the family and friends.
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