Two U.S. Army soldiers were killed and 12 others were injured on Oct. 2 when a military transport truck flipped en route to a training exercise in a remote part of Alaska, the U.S. Army Alaska announced.
According to the 11th Airborne Division, a U.S. military unit based in Alaska, the two soldiers who died were among 17 soldiers traveling in a light medium tactical vehicle when the single-vehicle accident took place.
The soldiers were on their way to the Yukon Training Area near Salcha, located about 30 miles southeast of Fairbanks, the state’s second-largest city.
John Pennell, a spokesman for the U.S. Army, told The Associated Press on Oct. 3 that the driver of the tactical vehicle lost control, causing the large truck to overturn on a dirt road going into the training area.
Two of the 12 injured soldiers were airlifted to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, Mr. Pennell said, adding the remaining injured soldiers were taken by ground ambulances to Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. Their conditions were not made available as of Tuesday morning.
“We’re a real tight-knit group in the military, so right now, the entire 11th Airborne Division is grieving and preparing to provide whatever support is necessary for the families of the deceased and to help support those who are still in the hospital and dealing with their injuries,” Mr. Pennell said.
The identities of the two soldiers who died are being withheld until after their families are notified.
The cause of the deadly single-vehicle incident is being investigated by the U.S. Army, officials said. Mr. Pennell, meanwhile, told the AP that the Army Combat Readiness Center in Alabama will also send an investigatory team.
Deadly Crashes
The incident is the latest in a series of deadly crashes involving the U.S. military this year, including two helicopter crashes that, since March, have killed 12 soldiers.
In late April, three Alaska-based soldiers were killed in a crash when two AH-64 Apache helicopters collided in flight. The collision happened when the soldiers were returning to base in Fairbanks from a training mission.
The unit was also part of Alaska’s 11th Airborne Division, which is nicknamed the “Arctic Angels.”
About a month earlier, nine soldiers died when two U.S. Army HH-60 Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopters crashed in March during a routine training mission in Kentucky. The crash took place about 25 miles northwest of Fort Campbell, a military base on the border between Kentucky and Tennessee.
The string of crashes led U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville to order a 24-hour stand down for all aerial operations except critical missions, the U.S. Army said in a statement released on April 29.
In August, a U.S. soldier died in Germany when a civilian semi-truck hit his Stryker armored vehicle on a highway near Tirschenreuth in Bavaria, U.S. Army Europe said in a statement. No other soldiers traveling in the military vehicle were injured.
