In the three years since, De Nola has tried to lobby members of the House of Representatives to investigate opioid abuse in the military, but until now, there hasnt been any real action at the federal level. Recent surgeries to his legs had left him unable to run well. Inside the Rash of Unexplained Deaths at Fort Hood | Vanity Fair Ruth Sparks, a native of San Jose, California, and resident of Fort Bragg, California, passed away on December 1, 2022, surrounded by her family. They quickly became the best of friends. He kind of represented himself as an SF operator, she says, though he was just a logistics guy. Some of the tough questions he and the other four senators posed to Secretary Austin included: Fort Bragg is the Armys largest and most important facility, the home of the 82nd Airborne Division, the Special Forces, and the Joint Special Operations Command, including the covert Delta Force. Well, I got 120.. In total, a staggering 83 active-duty soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg died in the 18 months ending June 2021, according to data obtained by Rolling Stone. Mysterious Fort Bragg Deaths Come After a Paratrooper Was Decapitated Some of them are really great. The details, gleaned from an administrative inquiry by the Army to determine whether Leshikar died in the line of duty, are sketchy: Around 1 p.m., while still on the road, Lavigne texted Laura to tell her that Leshikar was acting paranoid. Fort Bragg Deaths: Senators Press Pentagon on Military As soon as the rockets began to burst, We had to get out of there. U.S. and NC Flags to Half-Staff in Honor of U.S. Army Sgt. Other operators that were there. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Carol Ann Brown to pay them a last tribute. Its just wonderful, she said. He left the military in 2016, and for a time operated a nightclub in Fayetteville, which evidently brought him legal troubles. They are ghosts. What protocol is in place to identify and respond to an uptick in overdoses either generally or at a specific military installation? He was from a suburb of Los Angeles called Chino. deaths Ari McGuire, died of a fentanyl overdose at Fort Bragg in August 2019, after he was allegedly introduced to drugs by his platoon sergeant in Afghanistan. It was late at night and she was out front smoking a cigarette. Thank you for your service. In the iconography of American militarism, in the esoteric cult of special forces, the black censor bar across the eyes confers an unmistakably dark prestige. That broke me, Romero says. By the end of the year, there had been 21 suicides at Fort Bragg, more than at any other U.S. military post. Fort Bragg Advocate-News Obituaries - Fort Bragg, CA A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, May 13th 2023 at the Veteran's Hall (360 N Harrison St, Fort Bragg, CA 25 Years On, Paratroopers Remember The Green Ramp Smither enlisted in the Army in May 2019 and was stationed at Fort Bragg in December 2019. Joseph Zygarowski who died during a training exercise at Fort Bragg on April 19. Pfc. He was the oddity amongst the special-forces guys I was introduced to., In the one picture of Lavigne that exists in the public domain, his official Army portrait, his head looks like a white egg, and his face has the pale and drawn appearance of a man who has just shorn off a beard and shaved his scalp to the skin. We need answers, and we need solutions., Im calling on the Department of Defense to account for these deaths, he continued, and to give us a plan of action for safeguarding the active-duty service members who keep Americans safe.. WebCaitlin Brink/Marine Corps) Recent deaths during initial training across the services is the subject of a new Defense Department inspector general project, according to a Dec. 4 memo. Two from the 82nd Airborne were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, and another paratrooper, a combat engineer, lost his life in a vehicle rollover in Syria, for a total of three who perished overseas. The FBI is also investigating the deaths of Dumas and Lavigne, and has taken the lead in the case, according to CID. At no time during that interaction did they mention a missing person, a spokesman for the National Park Service told ABC11. The Department of Defense announced 25 total casualties of service members who died in combat or noncombat-related incidents throughout 2020. Fort Bragg Fort Bragg is the largest military base in the U.S. and the command post for the Armys most elite units, such as Delta Force and the Green Berets, which have borne a disproportionate burden of Americas never-ending wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, undergoing not just combat trauma and moral injury but a lot of traumatic brain injuries as well. On a cold evening in late January, when I visit the approximate spot where he was found, the woods are perfectly still and quiet, with not even a bird chirping. 'These Kids Are Dying' Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg It was out of control, says his best friends wife, Laura Leshikar. As the madness of 2020 settled over the country, bringing with it a nationwide wave of drug abuse and violent crime, Lavigne was also spinning out of control. deaths He once saw him using LSD at a barracks party, he says. Fort Bragg He was getting clean.. Its a horrible photo, Nicole says, like hes already dead. In real life, she says, he was more handsome: tall and bald, with a neatly trimmed beard. Explore Life Stories, Offer Condolences & Send Flowers. I was like a fly on the wall, she says, watching their interactions. Unlike his buddies, Lavigne never bragged about the number of people he had killed. Here's who they are. The cause of death was homicide. She used to rent a house from him in Carthage, another little town on the periphery of Fort Bragg. Billy seemed to have ideals that matched mine. Pfc. Billy Lavigne joined the Army right out of high school, in February 2001, to get free corrective eye surgery and money for a new dirt bike. George Allen taught Villalon at East Aurora High School. With multiple police pistols pointed at him and officers shouting at him to drop the gun, Lewis raised his weapon and shot himself in the forehead. But my brother was murdered back in May. Its the last thing we spoke about.. Sgt. Lavignes death., Pentagon Finally Stops Hiding Military Overdose Epidemic, Senators Press Pentagon for Answers on Rash of Overdose Deaths, These Kids Are Dying Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg cannot explain why dozens of soldiers are dying in their own bunks. A pair of skimpy running shorts known in the Army as ranger panties were all that he was wearing. I would see him staring off in space a lot, thinking. On the Fourth of July, he took his son to see the fireworks at Fort Bragg. The Army Criminal Investigation Command is investigating the death as a homicide, as an autopsy report states he was decapitated. In 2016, he was assigned to the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, where he served as a horizontal construction engineer and later as a squad leader. Grace Community Church had just opened a last-minute temporary shelter for the homeless the previous night. According to Stars & Stripes, more than 30 soldiers working at Fort Bragg have died so far in 2020. Appropriate adverse action, which was previously initiated in response to substantiated misconduct, was being finalized at the time of Master Sgt. Find an obituary, get service details, leave condolence messages or send flowers or gifts in memory of a loved one. The modus operandi that investigators have shown in these cases is to shut out the public, decline to answer questions, apprehend no perpetrators. He fell in love with what he was doing and decided he was going to make a career out of it, says his dad, who still lives in the remote Upper Peninsula of Michigan where Billy grew up skateboarding and riding motocross. They do what they want.. The authorities have kept completely mum. To hear that such a high-powered group of senators had taken up the cause was very encouraging. Maj. Dan Lessard, a spokesman for Lewis unit, the 1st Special Forces Command, says Cumberland County declined to prosecute and that there was insufficient evidence for a court-martial, but that Lewis did receive non-judicial punishment and was directed to receive substance-abuse and marriage counseling. But he would be dead before his scheduled court appearance. 2019 the year in review Succession Recap: Logan Roy Makes Shock Return, Shiv and Tom Get Kinky He was just a boy, she quotes him as saying. Night had fallen, and the suburban cul-de-sac was lit up by emergency lights. Lewis followed her outside, holding their three-year-old daughter on one hip and a gun in the other hand. They all knew Billy., Laura echoes Nicoles account when I speak to her separately. At the relatively young age of 37, after a full 20 years in the military, he would be entitled to a substantial pension and lifelong benefits. He was taken home that same night by some of his Delta Force teammates. Fort Bragg Only his severed head had been found. 2 Soldiers Die at Fort Bragg on the Same Day in Unrelated Incidents There had to have been at least one. Everybody seemed to know the same people. Fort Bragg Mount, 25, from St. George, Utah, died July 21 as the result of a vehicle rollover accident while conducting reconnaissance operations, July 21 in Eastern Syria. As she lay dying, her baby girl was born; she was going to be named Isabella, but she did not live. They might have spent a hundred days where they did 40 raids, and in 15 of the raids they were within 10 yards of a breach explosion. Over the course of several months of correspondence, the public-affairs office eventually disclosed the number of homicides and suicides, but not deaths from accidents and illnesses, which would include drug overdoses. People not inclined to be team players, he explained, somewhat paradoxically. Almost every time I saw Billy, he was strung out on something., A day after the bodies were found, an unnamed Army official leaked to CBS that both Lavigne and Dumas, at the time of their deaths, were under investigation for trafficking narcotics on Fort Bragg, and that investigators suspected a double homicide from a drug deal gone wrong.. The Army said two soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg died Monday in unrelated deaths that shook the community at the North Carolina base. He was a sweet, animal-loving kid who went to Afghanistan at the age of 19 and came back a different person, she says. JSOCs budget is classified, but it reportedly costs between $1 million and $2 million to train the average special operator, and much more has likely been invested in each soldier by the time they reach the level of whats known as a Special Mission Unit, such as Delta or SEAL Team 6. The man in the bed of the truck, by contrast, didnt have to inflate his military credentials. In November, yet another soldier, a 24-year-old Texan, was discovered unresponsive in his bunk, with no further details from the Army. There were a couple others that were with us, she tells me, drinking and partying. You got 42 confirmed kills? she says, imitating a mans deep voice. T Those two would always pull some shit, she says. He confessed that he had once killed a child soldier. U.S. and NC Flags to Half-Staff in Honor of U.S. Army Sgt. BRAGG Army Investigates Deaths of Green Beret Their brains bounced against their skulls a dozen times on that tour, in addition to calling in airstrikes, or being in an armored vehicle that gets rocked by an IED. Did he have demons? A burial was held on Monday, April 24th 2023 at the Rose Memorial Park (760 N Franklin St, Fort Bragg, CA 95437). On February 2nd, the Charlotte field office put out a bulletin seeking assistance from the public to establish a timeline of the two mens movements up until their deaths. Theyre covering something up. Most recent obituaries in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Macho as Leshikar might have been, when his little girl told him that he had to wear a dress to attend her tea party, he didnt argue. You would not believe how many people I have reached out to. Weve been looking for him all day. 2023 Rolling Stone, LLC. No screwdriver was found anywhere near Leshikars body. He was never booked, photographed, or taken before a magistrate for a bond hearing. He was participating in an airborne training operation at Fort Stewart, Georgia. I would rather see peace than war. The 172,000-acre Fort Bragg base is one of the world's largest military complexes with approximately 57,000 military personnel, 11,000 civilian employees and 23,000 family members. Tracie Augusta Smith. Special operation forces induct members into regiments at Fort Bragg. No one I spoke to had any clue, or even a theory, who the surviving shooter or shooters were. Fort Bragg In early 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic descended on the United States, his run-ins with the law became more frequent. On several occasions, various people at Fort Bragg have offered to sell him tabs, Romero says, including the soldier from the camping trip. A Dallas County jury awarded more than $860 million to the parents of a woman killed in 2019 when a 200-foot steel crane toppled onto her apartment building from an adjacent construction site. He was a human resource specialist in the 82nd Airborne Divisions 37th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team. Have a nice day. , I go to the location listed on the incident report to learn more, and find four people, two men and two women, living in a one-bedroom apartment in a drab complex near Cross Creek. Me and my mom being Catholic, it was difficult to understand., Fort Bragg was on quarantine and soldiers forbidden from traveling far from base, but seven paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division snuck off for a Memorial Day weekend camping trip at Cape Lookout National Seashore, a barrier island on the gray coast of the Carolinas. It was much easier, ironically, to get information on Fort Bragg-based personnel who died in foreign countries. Both men had young daughters. A spokesman, Chris Grey, writes in an email that Cumberland County had investigative jurisdiction over the case but that CID thoroughly reviewed all the evidence and interviewed witnesses. July 15, 2021 (24 years old) View obituary. Pfc. He expressed political disagreements with Leshikar, who was of the opinion that the United States ought to nuke the Middle East and be done with it. Report No. DODIG-2020-131: Evaluation of Medical 0:44. Maj. Gregory Seymour became Fort Bragg garrison's senior enlisted adviser Feb. 24. On May 9, 2018, roughly three months after Becky Kunzes death, Sarah Hartsfield fatally shot her onetime fianc in the large home they had moved to from Texas months before. It's a tremendous loss for all of us,Carroll said. death In the past six weeks, four wives of soldiers at Fort Bragg have been murdered. Ballard, the only full-time detective in Vass, didnt know Billy Lavigne. Roman-Martinezs partial remains had washed up on Shackleford Banks a few days later, but in the six months since then, few details had been forthcoming. Half of those deaths have been ruled suicides. Officials said foul play was not suspected. It included Dumas name and the type of handgun he used, but its not clear if he was taken into custody. McLaughlin and Villalon were soldiers who were part of the B Company, 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division. He was promoted to master sergeant in July 2019, becoming an operations team sergeant for a Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha, officials said. WebDeath notices in Fort Bragg are another source of valuable information for discovering those elusive ancestors. Its real strange, says Bill Lavigne Sr., father of the slain Delta Force soldier, that something like this can go on at Fort Bragg, and nobody seems to know nothing. It makes me feel great, said Carole De Nola, when she learned of the letter. Rachael Riley. No one could tell me who the escapee was, or what they had escaped from, but Cumberland County dropped all charges against Lavigne. Exclusive: Army Files Charges in Mysterious Fort Bragg Beheading Case, Bereaved family members welcomed the senators efforts towards reform. The next day around 7 p.m., one of the campers called 911. Sheriffs deputies took him to the station, but he was never placed under arrest or charged with a crime. But the Army isnt giving any, Illustration by Mike McQuade for Rolling Stone. After completing basic combat training and advanced individual training in 2019 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, he was assigned to the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, where he served as a combat engineer.

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