Pvt. Julian Diaz killed in accident
The News Tribune reports 19-year-old Pvt. Julian Diaz of Tolleson, Arizona, died in a vehicle crash at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. No further details about the crash were released.
Thanks to Tim for the link.
Category: Army News
Rest in peace Private Diaz. God be with your family.
Training for war is as dangerous as the war itself at times.
Only if the training is unsafe.
How does one conduct safe training for combat, that is of any significant value?
I was one of the original OCs in 1982. I can attest to the fact that the NTC is a dangerous place, whether you are a training unit or with the OPFOR or OPS GRP. Everything from short 155 rounds to rolling a track, heat exhaustion, you name it. Even had a limo show up in the live fire area one night full of ladies dressed to kill, looking for Vegas.
Rest in peace Soldier.
I was Scorpion 13C. We had quite a few training deaths during my tenure. The OPFOR
colonel was killed when his jeep rolled over one dark night – the day after we were authorized roll bars; had been requesting them for months.
Then one of our controllers was killed during live fire —he took a .50 through the neck.
Other player units would lose a soldier once in a while.
I remember traffic deaths and crashes at the flat curve just after “Ten Mile Stretch” on the way to Barstool. Just before I left (82~86) they ramped that curve. It got its name for being literally 10 miles — yet from Painted Rocks it looked only 3 miles long.
Scorpion 13C – out.
Fair winds and following seas, Private Diaz. I hope your family and friends find peace.
Far too young, much too soon. Rest in peace, Pvt. Diaz.
Rest in Peace, Brother, Sadness.
Rest In Peace Young Warrior, you were taken from us far too soon.
I just read the SIR on this. My BDE is getting ready to do a rotation this summer. He and another soldier were sleeping behind their Stryker during a white light period after an AAR. Their Stryker pulled away and to get online and the Stryker behind them pulled forward and ran over the ankle of one soldier and ran over the mid section of PVT. Diaz. The Stryker who ran the two soldiers over did not have a ground guide. PVT. Diaz died in route to the hospital. RIP young man.
Tragic and totally preventable. RIP young man.
The information you’re providing is confirmed to be true?
It hurts so much to hear how it happen I worked with Julian at del taco its such a horrible thing that happen
We had this happen a few years back at 29 Palms with an AAV doing the same…no ground guided
My guard unit will be there in 2 weeks. It’ll be my 5th time in the box. We’ve heard the exact same story that Bom2motiv said. I didn’t read the SIR but I trust my LTC that did. It was a perfect storm of safety violations that led to the needless death of this young soldier. The lack of a ground guide and no markings for the sleeping area can be a powderkeg. God speed Pvt. Diaz.
He was one of my best friends from basic
Scorpion !3: Remember both incidents. I was running the Live Fire when the OC got killed and I remember the OPFOR CDR getting killed as well. And a lot of other incidents during that time frame. The GANG BN CDRS son getting killed in a roll over and he buried his son and came back to finish the rotation.
Charlie 13/Zulu02
anyone who served through the mid 90’s knew that Irwin, Graf, Hohenfels, and Wildchicken eat soldiers.
It takes one less than perfectly safe action to seal your fate.
The real story about the training centers is that with the test the terrain imposes, the sheer number of moving parts, and the age of the soldiers, so few get killed in accidents.
It is a testament to the professionals at the training centers and the NCOs who lead the troops….
If the troops are trained well, and led well there are far less dumb deaths.
I cannot remember anything “safe” about Fort Irwin. “Manageable risk”? Certainly. Learning to manage that risk was a big part of it.
We put guards on sleeping areas, to try to prevent people getting squashed by vehicles. We were warned not to rack out on the ground in unguarded areas. For any number of reasons, guarding ones sleeping soldiers in the field is good idea.
Basic law in the field: always sleep near something too big for a vehicle to run over. Ranks with ‘carry Tabasco’ in importance.
it is always the leadership. Always.
While I was in Germany there was a long round from an 8″ fired over the impact area into the tent city in Graf. Several dead.
One mistake. Wrong charge loaded, NCOs did not catch the mistake or did not check, 200 pound HE bullet lands in a GP Medium full of sleeping GIs.
Another exercise (I was thankfully not part of) mech infantry crossing the Main River…M113 rolls over, two dead I think. But the frustrating part is that one of the dead was a soldier still in his fart sack inside the vehicle.
What kind of rat’s ass worthless so called NCO allows a trooper to stay his sorry ass in his fart sack after stand to?
One mistake…
I took an accident report at Hohenfels that should have been a fatal, soldier fell asleep at the wheel of his 5 ton, towing another 5 ton, flipping the towed vehicle. He woke up as his truck went up on the wheels on the driver’s side of the truck and reflexively steered in the right direction, putting all of the wheels back on the road. And, certainly enlivening the 3 soldiers in the back of his 5 ton and his co-driver.
Rest well, Private.
Rest in Peace.
three trips to NTC as Bluefor and one as a Opfor augmentee, and I don’t think we ever had anyone die. I think the rotation before us once had two soldiers die in a tent from carbon monoxide poisoning because they were using a bee hive heater.
We had one 14-year SFC try very hard to give himself sunstroke, by racking out in a shadow of a tent early in the morning after I left to run assigned errands. (Those shadows do not last very long….) I returned to the area much later to find him sleeping in full sun. I woke him to check on him, and found he was dehydrated and loopy. Much water later, he became rather angry with me for rather bluntly telling him not to be a dumbass, drink more water, and not sleep alone in the sun in the desert in 125 degree heat.
Noteworthy point I made to him: The rest of his subordinates left him alone. In other words, they were quite willing to let him kill himself stupidly.
(Angrily and contemptuously) “So why did -you- wake me up, PFC?”
“Because I do not want to fuck Captain Kratman or First Sergeant Rogers with a reportable heat casualty.” (They are responsible for avoidable heat casualties.)
“Oh. …. Not…”
“Have more water Sergeant.”