Army launches two investigations into Fort Hood truck accident that killed 9

The Army has launched two investigations after a deadly truck accident killed nine soldiers and injured three others on Fort Hood, Texas.

Experts from the Army Combat Readiness Center are leading the first investigation. The team visited the accident site on Saturday, said Maj. John Miller, a spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division.

The second investigation is an AR 15-6, or a commander’s fact-finding investigation, Miller said. The investigating officer appointed to conduct the 15-6 is in the “preliminary stages” of gathering information, he said.

As the investigations unfold, soldiers on Fort Hood will remember the fallen during a pair of memorial services.

Cadet Mitchell Alexander Winey, 21, will be remembered during a memorial service at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Winey was a member of the United States Military Academy Class of 2018, assigned to Company B, First Regiment.

Thursday’s service is being organized primarily for the 120 cadets who are on Fort Hood for Cadet Troop Leader Training, Miller said. About 70 of those cadets were training with the 1st Cavalry Division.

Cadet Troop Leader Training gives aspiring officers the opportunity to train with an Army unit over a three- to four-week period, according to U.S. Army Cadet Command. During this training, cadets serve in lieutenant-level leadership positions in active-duty units and are assigned a unit mentor.

A memorial service for the other eight fallen soldiers is tentatively scheduled for next week; a date has not been confirmed. That service will be for the soldiers’ teammates in 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment, which is part of 1st Cavalry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team.
Both services will be closed to the public and the media, Miller said.

These services “are for the unit to start the grieving process,” he said.
The deadly accident happened Thursday morning while the soldiers were conducting small-unit convoy operations training in a Light Medium Tactical Vehicle. The vehicle got stuck and overturned at the Owl Creek Tactical low-water crossing and East Range Road, according to information from Fort Hood.

There were 12 soldiers in the LMTV. Three were rescued by other soldiers who were in a vehicle following the LMTV, officials said. The bodies of three others were recovered from the water downstream from the vehicle.

The remaining six soldiers were recovered after a massive search that stretched into Friday.

All of the soldiers, with the exception of Winey, belonged to 3rd Battalion, 16th Field Artillery Regiment.

They were:

• Staff Sgt. Miguel Angel Colonvazquez, 38, from Brooklyn, New York.

• Spc. Christine Faith Armstrong, 27, from Twentynine Palms, California.

• Spc. Yingming Sun, 25, of Monterey Park, California.

• Pfc. Brandon Austin Banner, 22, from Milton, Florida.

• Pfc. Zachery Nathaniel Fuller, 23, from Palmetto, Florida.

• Pvt. Isaac Lee Deleon, 19, of San Angelo, Texas.

• Pvt. Eddy Raelaurin Gates, 20, of Dunn, North Carolina.

• Pvt. Tysheena Lynette James, 21, of Jersey City, New Jersey.

The incident has led many on social media to call for commanders to be held accountable for allowing the training to go on in bad weather, while others have argued that the tragic incident is part of the inherent dangers of being in the military and training for war.

Severe storms have pummeled Texas in recent days, with widespread flooding reported across the state. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster across 31 counties, and heavy rain was falling in some places at a rate of up to 3 inches an hour, according to The Weather Channel.
The road the soldiers were traveling on isn’t marked as a low-water crossing, which means it typically isn’t prone to flooding, said Lt. Col. Sunset Belinsky, a spokeswoman for the 1st Cavalry Division.

“But because of the unusual amount of rain we’ve received, water did come across the road,” she said.

A Fort Hood official speaking on background said that at the time of the incident all roads prone to flooding were already closed on post. Around the time the emergency call came in, officials from the Fort Hood Department of Emergency Services were advising leaders to shut down additional roads, the official told Army Times.

Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug confirmed the account, saying that at the time of the incident, “water was rising quickly” and “we were in the process of closing the roads,” Haug said.