At about 8:30 a.m.on Wedesday, July 13, 2011, two young men, 21, were pulled unconscious from the shallow end of Lyons Pool in the Thompkinsville
section of the borough of New York City's Staten Island. Bohdan Vitenko was declared dead at the hospital and Jonathan Proce, a city lifeguard at
another pool, is in serious condition yet still alive.
According to investigators, they appeared to be testing their ability to remain underwater when they lost consciousness. Vitenko aspired to be a Navy
Seal and Proce was hoping to join an elite group of Air Force pararescue jumpers.
theoriginalgreenwichdiva.com...
Witnesses said Bohdan Vitenko along with Jonathan Proce and
two other friends were participating in a Navy Seal type exercise ... Reports say
the men, who were newcomers to the pool, were seen in the last couple of days doing sit-ups and other strenuous exercises underwater. Witnesses said
just before the accident the
four men were doing some sort of underwater breath-holding exercise. It is believed that Proce was an Air Force
recruit who was hoping to join the Battlefield Airmen fighting force.
www.nypost.com...
It's not clear if the duo was following
an official training program, or if they had devised their own workout, said Lt. Col. Robert Roy, head
of Air Force recruiting in New York. About 20 people were swimming in the pool, which opened at 7 am and was staffed with lifeguards, when Proce and
Vitenko were plucked from a far corner.
One of the uninjured men who was training was also
an Air Force recruit, Roy said.
This appears to be just a tragic accident. The mystery is, why didn't the two lifeguards in this pool notice what was going on? And how is that the
two unidentified and uninjured companions didn't intervene? And why haven't they been publicly interviewed? Was this just some sort of macho "I
can hold my breath longer than you can" contest gone wrong, or were they being challenged to take this risk by their
military recruiter--the
unmentioned fourth person at the scene? Is that why the life guards weren't watching--because they thought the exercises were being overseen by
another authority figure? Is the media helping to cover up the fact that this was in fact a military accident? If so, there should be a military
investigation and punishment for the officer-in-charge. I smells me a cover-up.
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