COLUMBIA, South Carolina- A 40-year-old Army sergeant training to be a drill sergeant was found dead after failing to return from a land navigation course at a South Carolina military base.
Search teams found Sgt. Jaime Contreras nearly 11 hours after he was supposed to have completed the three-hour course Monday at Fort Jackson, near Columbia.
Contreras had only strayed about 50 yards from the course “but it’s unforgiving terrain,” said Maj. John Farrell, director of Emergency Services at the Army’s largest training base.
Brigadier General Jason Kelly, the commander of Fort Jackson, gave few details about what may have happened to Contreras, saying the investigation has just begun.
“We do not know the cause of his deviation, if any, in the course or his cause of death”Kelly said at a news conference on Wednesday.
Contreras was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division and lived in Las Vegas, Kelly said.
“We are supporting both his family and his teammates and we will continue to do so,” Kelly said.
The training of land navigation involves the use of maps, compasses, and other tools to find certain places on a 2.3 square mile grid.
Contreras did a training course with a partner on Friday. On Monday, more than 90 drill sergeant trainees were sent out on individual missions, Army officials said.
The course was to last from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. When Contreras did not return by 2 p.m., Fort Jackson launched a massive search, calling in state and local law enforcement for help, Farrell said.
In the end, the Search teams managed to locate Contreras’ mobile phoneand planes and ground crews found her body around 11:30 p.m. Monday, Farrell said.
Without knowing exactly where Contreras was trying to reach, it’s hard to say exactly how far off course he was, Farrell said.
“It wasn’t too far out of bounds,” Farrell said.
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