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Marine dies in rollover accident while training at Twentynine Palms

July 29, 2024

A Marine involved in a vehicle rollover at Marine Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms has died, military officials said Monday.

The Marine was part of the Tactical Exercise Control Group overseeing a service-level exercise on Saturday, July 27, when the vehicle flipped. The exercises, which include live-fire and combined arms use, are designed to qualify Marine battalions for upcoming deployments and missions.

While it is unclear what the Marine was doing, officials said the rollover occurred with a high-mobility multi-purpose vehicle.

The lightweight vehicle is four-wheel drive, agile and carries military weapons from machine guns to anti-tank missile launchers. It can travel through deserts and jungles and climb 60-degree slopes while traversing 60 inches of water.

The Marine was first treated at Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital in Twentynine Palms and then flown to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, where doctors pronounced him dead on Sunday, July 28.

No other Marines were injured in the incident.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of the Marine during this difficult time,” Marine officials said in a statement.

The Marine’s identity will not be released until after all next-of-kin notifications have been completed. His unit is based at Twentynine Palms.

The Marine Corps has had its share of fatal vehicle rollovers. In 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report that reviewed rollovers in both the Marine Corps and Army and found that between 2010 and 2019, the two service branches reported 3,753 non-combat vehicle accidents, in which 124 people died. Vehicle rollovers were the cause of death in 63% of the accidents.

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The report was prompted in 2019 at the request of lawmakers spurred on by families whose relatives had died in the accidents. Among the most vocal were the parents and then-fiancee of 1st Lt. Conor McDowell, 24, who died in a training rollover accident in the Las Pulgas area of Camp Pendleton on May 9, 2019. Six other Marines suffered moderate injuries.

Less than a month before McDowell died, another Camp Pendleton Marine, Staff Sgt. Joshua Braica, 29, a member of the 1st Marine Raider Battalion, was also killed in a rollover accident. The men were two of six killed and nine injured in a two month period that year.

The GAO made recommendations, and both the Marines and Army agreed to implement greater safety procedures in the vehicles and on the ranges.

In December, a Marine died at Camp Pendleton when an Amphibious Combat Vehicle rolled over. The vehicle was training on land when the rollover occurred. Fourteen others inside the vehicle were also injured but then released after being hospitalized.

Marines are investigating the cause of this weekend’s rollover at Twentynine Palms.

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Orange County Register