19-year-old soldier dies at Big Bend National Park after falling into Rio Grande

[TexasTowelie]

An active-duty U.S. soldier died Saturday at Big Bend National Park after he slipped and fell into the Rio Grande.

Pfc. Mamady Kaba, 19, fell into the river near the park's hot springs around 3:30 p.m., park officials said. Rangers later found Kaba's body after an extensive search of the river.

Kaba, a member of the 86th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, was stationed at Fort Bliss and was visiting Big Bend with members of his unit. Officials said Kaba was playing and swimming along the Rio Grande when he fell in.

When witnesses saw that he failed to resurface, they began looking for him but could not find him.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/accidental-death/2019/05/24/19-year-old-soldier-dies-big-bend-national-park-after-falling-rio-grande

[saidsimplesimon]

1. "fell into the river"?

My mamaw told me (age 4-5) that I was only allowed to play near the river if someone who could swim agreed to go with me. Needless to say, my teenage aunties left me high and dry with threats that the river monster would eat me. Ah, fun times, great memories

I learned to swim in a high school gym class, such was my fear of the water. My daughter and her children learned to swim before kindergarten.

[Dem2theMax]

2. He could have hit his head on rocks for all we know.

You never know what is under the surface of a body of water. I was swimming by the age of three. And I have always been a very strong swimmer. But I've always respected every body of water I have ever entered. You never know what is there.

[saidsimplesimon]

3. So true, lives are lost

every year in places like the the Grand Canyon. "You never know what is there."

[Dem2theMax]

4. I used to live in the mountains, and we had a local swimming hole.

It was actually very large, fed by a waterfall. And the locals knew that you could swim in behind the waterfall, and you could actually sit on a natural rock ledge behind the waterfall.

The locals also knew that when you were ready to come out from that ledge, you had to stand up on it, and dive out away from the waterfall, but that you had to make a very shallow dive. There was a very large boulder in that swimming hole, and if you took a deep dive, you would hit it, and probably never come back up.

It was always fun to go swimming behind the waterfall and 'disappear,' when tourists were sitting around the swimming hole. They never knew where we were going!

[saidsimplesimon]

5. Fun memories are the best.

I am ashamed to admit, Niagara Falls, and Tahquamenon Falls in Michigan are the only two I have visited.

[Dem2theMax]

6. I haven't been to either one of those yet.

Maybe someday.

I have to say that when I lived in the mountains, that was the best time of my life.

I was actually there between my Junior and Senior year of high school. I had a job for the summer, and it was the best summer ever. I always say that if I had to go back and continually repeat a few months of my life, those would be the months I would choose.