The Navy is now implementing a new policy of supervising drop-outs after a trainee committed suicide earlier this year, NBC News reported.
Steve DelBianco said his son Danny spent 50 hours without sleep completing a punishing series of drills, but couldn’t take any more. After dropping out on April 5, he left the base and walked off the ledge of a nearby San Diego hotel. The Navy says it was the first suicide of a trainee in the program’s history.
The Navy now says Danny DelBianco should never have been allowed to leave and will now supervise trainees 24 hours after dropping out, a spokesman told NBC News and The Virginian-Pilot in a statement.
The Navy said about 80 percent of those in the program don’t pass. Many trainees are top athletes who rarely fail at anything. Those who quit or cannot continue end up working jobs on the base on Coronado, near San Diego, where others still pursue training.
Steve DelBianco said his family is heartbroken, but wants a commitment that the new monitoring policy can’t be overturned by the commander in charge of the training. The Navy hasn’t made something.
