Newly arrived Air Force recruits receive instructions from Tech Sgt. Kaleb Schmidt, left, at Lackland Air Force Base, the service’s basic training hub.
Marvin Pfeiffer/San Antonio Express-News
Recruits arrive for basic training at the Pfingston Reception Center at Lackland Air Force Base, the service’s basic training hub.
Marvin Pfeiffer/San Antonio Express-News
Recruits in basic training do morning exercises at Lackland Air Force Base. Lackland is the service’s basic training hub, graduating 35,000 airmen per year.
File/San Antonio Express-News
An influenza outbreak that swept through Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland for two months, sickening hundreds of recruits and killing one, has ended, officials said.
No new cases have been reported since June 26, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro told the San Antonio Express-News. Castro, a San Antonio Democrat, has given periodic updates on the flu outbreak while Air Force officials remained largely silent.
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At the peak of the flareup, there were 284 confirmed cases, and six airmen were hospitalized. The lone fatality was Airman 1st Class Keon Talik McDaniel, 25, of Grand Rapids, Mich.
RELATED: Air Force confirms first death in Lackland flu outbreak, Rep. Castro says
Airman 1st Class Keon Talik McDaniel, 25, of Grand Rapids, Mich., died June 16 in a flu outbreak at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
Toombs by Crystal Funeral Services
The virus began spreading through the ranks of recruits in basic training at Lackland weeks after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in April that flu shots would no longer be mandatory for military personnel.
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Lackland is the center of Air Force basic training, graduating 35,000 airmen every year. During the 7½-week gantlet of calisthenics, weapons training, classroom instruction and field exercise, recruits live in four mammoth Airman Training Complexes: high-rise dorms that house 1,248 trainees each. They march together in close formation, sit four to a table in dining facilities and sleep two feet apart in open bays.
For years, recruits at Lackland were required to be vaccinated against measles, mumps, rubella, polio and other diseases. They received the shots during “Zero Week,” the beginning of boot camp. On April 20, however, Hegseth announced that he was making flu vaccinations optional for all active-duty, reserve and Defense Department personnel.
“Under the disastrous Biden administration, this Pentagon waged an unrelenting war on our warriors on many fronts, including when it came to denying them simple medical autonomy and the freedom to express their religious convictions,” Hegseth said then. “In other words, our men and women in uniform were forced to choose between their conscience and their country.
“The War Department is once again restoring freedom to our Joint Force,” he said. “We are discarding the mandatory flu vaccine requirement, effective immediately.”
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The outbreak began in May and became public on June 18. At that point, 160 recruits were said to have been infected. By June 25, the number had reached 284, according to an update from Castro. The Air Force said it could neither confirm nor dispute the number.
In its only public statement to date on the outbreak, the 37th Training Wing, which oversees Air Force basic training, told the Express-News on June 24 that it was “managing a localized influenza outbreak among trainees at basic military training.” The wing said it was isolating and treating those with symptoms while monitoring others who may have been exposed to the virus.
After the flu began spreading, the Pentagon suspended the voluntary vaccine policy for Lackland and required recruits to get flu shots, at least for the time being.
McDaniel, who was in his sixth week of basic training, suffered “a medical emergency” and died at Brooke Army Medical Center on June 16, the Air Force said. The Pentagon has yet to comment on his death. Castro announced on June 30 that he had learned from the Air Force that McDaniel died of the flu.
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RELATED: Lackland flu outbreak gets worse, with 275 recruits now reported ill
McDaniel was born in Panama City, Fla., the youngest of 10 children. His father, Christopher, served in the Air Force. The family lived in Ramstein, Germany, site of a U.S. Air Force base; San Antonio; Battle Creek, Mich.; and Las Vegas before settling in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The younger McDaniel graduated from Grand Rapids Central High School in 2019. He loved cars and fixing things and obtained a certification in automotive technology from Grand Rapids Community College, according to a funeral home obituary. He later joined the Michigan Air National Guard, 110th Wing, based in Battle Creek, and was looking forward to working in a civil engineering squadron.
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“To Trainee McDaniel, even though your time in the Air Force was short, you will always remain a member of the Air Force family,” read an unsigned post on Active Duty Talk, a Facebook group of Air Force noncommissioned officers. “To the parents of Keon, please know you are in our deepest thoughts and prayers as you navigate this unimaginable tragedy.”