Saturday, Aug. 22, 2009

Heat stroke blamed for soldier’s death

A Fort Jackson soldier who died Thursday morning after a Wednesday evening training exercise likely died of complications from heat stroke, Richland County’s coroner said Friday.

Jonathan Morales, 18, of Milwaukee, was finishing up a group training run and began falling behind, Coroner Gary Watts said. His supervisor noticed he seemed unsteady on his feet and had him sit in the back of a truck to finish the exercise.

“At some point, he fell out of the truck and suffered a head injury,” Watts added.

Watts has ruled the cause of death was heat stroke.

Morales had been in the Army less than 10 weeks.

The death is the first in basic training at the fort this year, following three in 2008, fort spokesman Pat Jones said.

The march in which Morales was participating is part of the latter stages of basic training, officials said.

The Army and Fort Jackson consider the incident a fatal Army training accident, Jones said.

Such deaths trigger investigations automatically, including from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and Fort Jackson’s internal Ground Accident Investigation Board, Jones said.

— Kelly Davis and Tim Flach

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