Pursuing a career in natural resources management conjures up thoughts of working in serene settings, protecting the environment, being a friend to wildlife and teaching young and old to appreciate the outdoors.
Jereme Odom (‘98) earned a degree in natural resources management and has been a Tennessee wildlife officer since 1999. While in school, he supplemented his classroom education as vice president of the UT Martin student chapter of the Wildlife Society and has maintained memberships in other professional societies. As a TWRA officer, he enforces state hunting, fishing and boating laws, manages state-owned land and conducts numerous youth outreach programs. He also developed the concept for what became a $3 million state shooting complex – a facility he now oversees after raising more than $900,000 toward its completion. Finally, he has claimed his share of honors, including TWRA state and regional officer of the year designations and the 2006 TWRA Distinguished Service Award.
“No day is typical in Montgomery County,” he said. “As a wildlife officer, you can head out to check hunters or boaters and end up working with injured wildlife or talking with area youth or farmers. It is a great and fulfilling job.”
It is on those aspects of his career that Odom prefers to focus. Still, an event May 25, 2006, was an abrupt reminder that tranquil outdoor settings sometimes belie the hazards and perils of nature. And, while he does not want it to be a defining moment of his career, his life was threatened, and it is a time he will not likely forget. He helped save the life of a Montgomery County Rescue Squad member.
“I was just doing my job and trying to help,” said Odom. “I have lots of other things that I want to be known for . . . not a tragedy at the muddy river.”
Early in the day, May 25, major storms and rain swept through the area and caused the level of the Red River in Clarksville to rise. When bad weather cleared, and it turned pretty again, two boys went to swim at the Old Mill on the west fork of the river.
“I had gone fishing that evening because it was so nice, but the water was muddy and up,” said Odom.
Odom’s involvement in the day’s events began at 6 p.m. It was a call from the Montgomery County Rescue Squad to assist in the recovery of the two youths presumed drowned at the mill. Also on the scene were emergency services personnel, Clarksville police officers and Odom’s partner, Dale Grandstaff.
“At first when I got the call, I was thinking that I’d get there, and they would find the boys were at home or there never would have been any boys (in danger). We get a lot of calls that come up with nothing,” he said.
From information gathered at the scene, officials speculated the boys had jumped from a tree into the river, were swept downstream over the dam and caught in the boils that continuously toss and churn the water making it difficult to stay afloat.
The rescue squad had asked Odom and Grandstaff to put in a boat and travel upstream to look for the youths just in case they got out of the boils and were downstream. Navigating around a swollen river bend, Odom and Grandstaff saw numerous emergency lights and one rescue boat near the dam. Just then, they saw the rescue boat pulled into the dam by suction of the boils. Both occupants, Joe Snow and Dustin Hass, dive team members, were overboard and being pulled into the boils. Their boat lodged in the dam.
“I got onto the bow of our boat as Dale motored to them,” said Odom. They reached Hass first, rescued him and then attempted to reach Snow, who was trapped in the boils and being pulled down. He would only surface every now and then, and Odom had touched him once, but Snow was pulled out of his hands and went down. The boils then sucked the boat carrying Odom and Grandstaff in their churning waters and into the dam.
“I tried to push off the dam, but the water coming over the dam was deep.” At that point, the boat overturned and trapped Odom underneath it. When he pulled the cord on his inflatable life jacket, it at first forced him to the surface, but then began dragging him under again. “When I finally made it to the surface, I was totally out of breath.” Odom said he got a glimpse of his partner holding onto their boat that was wedged against the dam “before the rigging from the rescue squad boat wrapped around my neck. I had a life jacket pulling me back (into the boils), I was cold and tired, and my air supply was cut off somewhat.”
Grandstaff, who was not injured, was able to pull Odom closer to him, remove the rope, and they made it to shore. About the same time, the rescue boat that remained lodged in the dam stopped the flow of water enough freeing Snow from the boils. Other rescuers were able to grab him, start cardiopulmonary resuscitation and get a pulse. He was airlifted to a hospital. Storms prevented Odom from being airlifted, and he was transferred by ambulance to a medical facility. He was treated and released after several hours, but Snow died several days later.
“Working for TWRA, I go on many calls with boating accidents, and some involve death and injury, but this was the first time that other rescuers and I have been involved in being rescued and the loss of a rescuer,” said Odom. “If I was put in the same situation . . . I would do the same thing. I would hope that if I was in trouble, other rescuers would come to my aid, as they did that night, and as Dale and I did for Joe. As officers and rescuers, you are there to help and save lives and, from time to time, give the greatest thing, your life as Joe did.”
Odom was the focus of much media attention after the ordeal, and people still mention it from time to time. Family and friends of those involved also have expressed their gratitude for his and other rescuers’ efforts that day.
His family remained a little scared and emotional for a while. Odom and his wife, Sarah, have three daughters, McKenzie, 7, Ryelee, 3, and Savannah, 1. “It was the first time something like this had happened in the area to this level, so it was a reality check.”
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