The death of Specialist Bishop Evans

SPC Bishop Evans

As ninja keeps reminding us, a Texas National Guard soldier tragically gave his life at the Rio Grande this week to save a couple of illegal border crossers. More information has come out now on the death of Specialist Bishop Evans that make it even more tragic.

Necessary safety equipment for conducting water rescues was not available. Who’s running the safety briefings on this shit?

From Army Times;

The river was moving swiftly the morning Spc. Bishop Evans jumped into the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass to save two migrants who appeared to be drowning.

The risk was great. In the past month, at least 23 migrants had drowned in those waters. And rescues by Guard members patrolling the river were a regular occurrence.

The 22-year-old part-time field artilleryman from Arlington, Texas, was found dead Monday — ending a four-day search for his body, which had been washed away by the river. He was one of 10,000 National Guard members deployed to Operation Lone Star, Gov. Greg Abbott’s prized mission to secure the Texas-Mexico border.

Evans jumped into the raging waters without a flotation device, the Texas Military Department said in an email Tuesday in response to inquiries from The Texas Tribune and Military Times.

He took that risk because, like many other troops on the mission, he wasn’t outfitted with the potentially lifesaving equipment.

The Texas Military Department ordered rescue ropes and hundreds of ring buoys in February to increase safety for water rescues. But the equipment had not yet arrived to most Guard members at the time Evans died.

“The incident is still under investigation, however we do not believe SPC Evans had a floatation device at the time of death,” the Texas Military Department’s public affairs staff said Tuesday in an unattributed statement. “We only received about 25 percent of the requested equipment due to delays from the vendor and global supply chain issues.”

The public affairs staff also said it made the request for equipment in February as part of its plan to address “gaps in equipment and safety gear.”

It’s not clear why the equipment wasn’t requested until February, 11 months after the mission began in March 2021. For months, soldiers have decried a lack of equipment on Abbott’s hastily deployed border mission, but the absence of water equipment is the first time that lack of supplies may have contributed to a soldier’s death.

Two Guard officials specializing in logistics told Military Times and the Tribune that the Texas Military Department sat on a request for flotation devices for three weeks before it was approved. The delays, those officials said, were avoidable and highlight the dysfunction plaguing the unprecedented $2 billion-per-year state mission.

Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Army, Disposable Warriors, National Guard