Press Conference for training accident that killed three Soldiers and injured three others, October 21, 2019.
Transcript
[Patrick] How about right in the center? Before we get started, I’d like everyone to silence their cell phones if you could so we don’t have any cell phones going off. Also, once again, we’ve got about 20 minutes for this interview to ask General Aguto and Mike some questions. When you ask your initial question, please identify yourself by name and your outlet, and then I’m gonna ask both General Aguto and Mike to actually give the correct spelling and pronunciations of their names as well, and once again, we’ve got two releases that were issued yesterday. We need to speak to the information and facts that were on those releases, and then we won’t be able to release the names of the deceased soldiers today. So again, are there any questions from anybody?
So good afternoon. My name is Major General Tony Aguto. I am the commander of 3rd Infantry Division, and to my left is Mr. Mike Barksdale. He is a member of the investigation team here from the Army Readiness Center, or Safety Center, excuse me, out of Fort Rucker, Alabama. Before we actually field questions, I would like to offer my sincere condolences to the family members of the three soldiers that we lost in yesterday’s tragic accident. It is hard enough when you lose one soldier, but when you lose three at one time, that pain is amplified, and we are really feeling and sharing that pain across the division and across our entire community. We’d like to thank and we are grateful for all of the thoughts and prayers that we have received, truly from across the world, and they are greatly needed at this time as we continue to care for our families, their loved ones, and the soldiers affected by this tragic accident. Before we begin, I’d like to just relay a few facts about the incident before we start taking questions. At approximately 3:20 yesterday morning, a Bradley Fighting Vehicle from the 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team was involved in a training accident when it rolled off a bridge and was submerged upside-down in a stream on Fort Stewart, Georgia training area, unfortunately killing three soldiers and injuring three others. The unit involved in the incident was conducting training as they get ready to deploy to the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California sometime in February. This was a single-vehicle accident involving the six soldiers. The three injured soldiers were evacuated to the Winn Army Community Hospital here on Fort Stewart. Two were treated and released that same day. One was further moved on and transferred to the Memorial Hospital in Savannah, Georgia. He is currently in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries. The deceased soldiers are… Sergeant First Class Bryan Jenkins from Florida, Corporal Thomas Cole from Ohio, and PFC Antonio Garcia from Arizona. We will hold a memorial service for the soldiers in the near future honoring their service to our nation. The 3rd Infantry Division and a team from the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center are here investigating the incident, but our primary focus truly is for the care for the family members of the soldiers, their families that were all affected by this tragedy, and with that, we’re happy to take your questions.
[Reporter] Sir, the soldiers were driving in black-out drive conditions that night, is that correct?
Sir, it was at night, it was very early in the morning. Under what systems they were using to mitigate that risk is a little premature to answer right now. It is still an open investigation, and that will be part of the investigation.
[Reporter] Typically with training exercises like this, are there higher-ranking supervisors on hand?
Absolutely, so in a training exercise like this, we plan it months in advance. It’s resourced, it’s rehearsed before we actually execute any kind of exercise, and that’s everywhere from me being briefed on the exercise and approving the missions to the brigade commanders, the battalion commanders, the company commanders, the non-commissioned officers that are there in the conduct of the exercise.
[Reporter] And that was the case with this one?
Yes, it was.
[Reporter] Is there any indication, Saturday night into Sunday morning that whatever was left of what had been Tropical Storm Nestor came through Southeast Georgia and the area. Is there any indication that severe weather might have played any kind of role in this at this point?
So it is true, Nestor came. We didn’t really feel the effects that we originally thought were going to happen. I would tell you that in any exercise, any commander, any soldier has the ability to stop, question what we’re doing in the answer for safety. In other words, if we feel a commander, even though I’ve issued an execution order, can stop a training incident if he feels it’s unsafe. In this particular incident, the effects of Nestor or what was left of Nestor had gone through. None of the warnings were out there to include storm surge or winds or any of those advisories. They’d already passed at the time.
[Reporter] While the investigation is ongoing, is there any aspect of training that is currently put on hold or changing while you gather more information?
So the training that we’re conducting in preparation for the National Training Center is what we do really across the Army. It is standard. When we have an accident like this, we will stop. We will do a quick discussion with all of our soldiers as to what we can do to help prevent these accidents, but the training still continues to go on. We do take considerations to ensure everybody’s doing things safely, but there is a process by which we look at the training, assess the conditions, do risk-mitigation or understanding the risk, and as I said, each commander will brief and then has the ability to adjust the training based on the safety conditions.
[Reporter] It’s not being totally halted at this time?
No, it is not, it is not.
[Reporter] How often do you see accidents like this during training?
Excuse me, accidents of this tragedy?
Yes.
Not very much. Do accidents occur, of course. Training is tough, realistic, and we train for all sorts of conditions, no matter where we would go. You would expect us to do that, and this was the case in this incident.
[Reporter] If I may go a little more specific into this particular type of vehicle, and maybe either of you can answer to this, this is perhaps the second or third accident this year involving a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the most recent being a death at Fort Hood. What are the types of risks that are taken into consideration about this specific vehicle when training?
All of our vehicles, the soldiers receive training on how to operate those systems, both under limited visibility as were experienced on the night of this tragedy and during daylight conditions. All soldiers receive rollover training to help mitigate the potential hazard of a rollover, so soldiers are trained to operate this type of equipment in all different types of terrains and all different types of weather conditions.
I’ve been training on Bradleys and armored vehicles as long as I’ve been in the Army. We have a process by where we identify risk, we mitigate that risk, we do specific training for all sorts of conditions, and soldiers are trained on how to react in all of those conditions.
[Reporter] At this point, is it still just too early to say even preliminarily why y’all think this Bradley went off this bridge?
Short answer is yes, it is too early.
[Reporter] Sir, you said you had a soldier in the hospital. Do you know his or her condition?
We know that he is stable. We know it’s non-life-threatening.
[Reporter] As far as training goes, where do you go from here, sir, on Fort Stewart? I mean, does it change anything?
Really as the investigation goes and we learn from the investigation, which is really why we have our safety center and what they’re doing out here, we will learn things to help prevent this in the future, and we’ll take those lessons and incorporate them as needed, but it’s a little too early to tell right now what could affect the training or how we do it.
[Reporter] What’s the timeline like for this investigation? What are some of the next steps?
Typically, it takes us three to four weeks on the ground to complete what we call our field report, and then from there, we will present the command here at Fort Stewart with what our findings and recommendations are, and then from there, we go through a process where we finalize the report, and then it’s posted back down through the chain of command, and it’s entered into the database at the Combat Readiness Center.
But every investigation that we do is taken on its individual merit, and we will actually complete the investigation when we’re comfortable with the accuracy, the thoroughness of that investigation.
[Reporter] This was mentioned in the press release, but as far as resources for people on base in terms of grieving and dealing with this, how is that working?
At the time of the incident, we assigned a casualty notification officer and a casualty assistance officer. In each one of these cases, there is a casualty assistance officer that is specifically assigned to that family to help them deal with the process, the bereavement and just the administration process. Each unit has what we call a care team. It’s usually comprised of soldiers, leaders, family members that are specifically there to help them. We also have a number of agencies and services here on post and in the units, chaplains, behavioral health, grievance or bereavement specialists that will help them work their way through this. When the time is ready for the unit and the family members, we will have a memorial service that honors both their service and the family members as well.
[Reporter] Was this a high bridge over the water? Was the water terribly deep, and is there anything further you can tell us about that?
Truthfully, no, not until the investigation’s complete.
[Reporter] At this point, do you have any idea if the cause of the fatalities were more likely impact or being under water?
Again, no, I can’t tell you that right now.
[Reporter] Are you able to tell us how many other soldiers were training at the same time, perhaps in the same vicinity?
So the entire combat brigade was actually out on training as part of this exercise. This particular incident, there was a battalion out training. In the time of this movement, the battalion was all moving as part of the exercise, and at this particular accident itself, there was a company as part of that battalion training.
[Reporter] Are you able to confirm that the soldiers drowned?
There is a team from our medical command here that is in the process of conducting the autopsies, so it would still be too early to say.
[Reporter] Were there others nearby who were able to get to the scene fairly quickly? I mean, it’s not clear if they were by themselves, or it might have taken a little time for anybody else to get to them or not.
Yes, as I said that this particular incident, it was part of a battalion training exercise and that they were in the process, or they were with their entire company, so there were other soldiers nearby that assisted.
[Reporter] Can you kind of circle back around to the Bradley. It takes six people to operate, yes?
I’m gonna give you an it depends answer. A Bradley has a driver, a vehicle commander who’s responsible for the vehicle, and then a gunner who also sits next to that vehicle commander. In the back of the Bradley, ’cause its main role is to be a personnel carrier, the number of people that could actually be in the back of that vehicle varies depending on the type of unit it is.
[Reporter] Is it like a tank where you get in from the top
Actually, in a Bradley, you can get in a number of ways. You can get in from the top, and you can get in from the back side of the Bradley itself.
[Reporter] But all six people involved in this case were in this one vehicle.
Yes, yes.
[Reporter] And you said it’s already hard losing one, but now three. How has it been for the past 24 hours?
Tough, in a word. We have all, all of our leadership, has spent time with the unit. We spent time with the families. We spent time with the injured soldiers. It’s been a tough time for all of us.
[Reporter] How many times in your career have you had to do this difficult thing of talking about losing soldiers, and I’m sure it does not get any easier.
I’ve been in the Army for quite a long time, and as you know, we’ve been all over the world. It never gets any easier, regardless of the circumstance.
[Patrick] Ladies and gentlemen, we have time for one more question.
[Reporter] Would you mind, the spellings of first and last names and ranks of the soldiers?
Yeah, so if Patrick hasn’t given it to you yet, we have information sheets on all of the soldiers, and then Patrick here will be prepared to answer any follow-on questions you have, but all of that will be provided to you.
[Reporter] Sir, is there anything else you’d like to add?
Any other questions?
[Reporter] I know nobody can put a timeline on it. Mr. Barksdale said usually three to four weeks on the ground and you all get a preliminary report. How long might it be before we’ve made things made public about unique findings?
We work under the auspices this is privileged safety information. There are other ongoing investigations as well. Some of our information is releasable under FOIA, but that’s how safety investigations are conducted.
[Reporter] Just for context, is there, how many deaths from training exercises have happened here at Fort Stewart before?
I can’t speak for the history of Fort Stewart. I can tell you that our last training incident was sometime, or it was 2018, early 2018. So again, on behalf of all of us here in 3rd Infantry Division and across the Fort Stewart community, we offer our sincerest condolences to the family members of our three lost soldiers, our brothers in arms, our fellow Dogfaced Soldiers, and we truly stand at the ready to help them in any way we can. We share your pain. We honor and are humbled by their service and sacrifice, and we will truly miss them. Thank you all for coming today and taking the time.
[Reporter] Thank you.
[Reporter] Thank you.
[Patrick] As the CG mentioned and as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got some digital packets that we’re gonna get out to all you guys. That’s what we do, just wanna make sure.