Marine dies during live-fire infantry training at Camp Pendleton
The Marine was participating in a night live-fire event, service officials said.
A Marine died Thursday in a live-fire exercise during infantry training at Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps officials said Friday.
“A Marine assigned as a student to the School of Infantry-West aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton died while participating in a night live-fire event,” service officials said in a statement.
An investigation is underway, the service said, and the school was “providing support to the families and peers of the deceased.”
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Though the service did not release details of the training event in which the Marine died, SOI-West at Camp Pendleton is one of two primary training hubs that teaches combat skills in furtherance of the service’s ethic that “every Marine is a rifleman.” After graduating from boot camp, nearly all Marines report to SOI-West (or its counterpart, SOI-East at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina) for either a two-month course at the Infantry Training Battalion for those assigned to the infantry or a month-long course in basic combat skills for those headed to non-infantry jobs under the Marine Combat Training Battalion.
The Marine Corps did not say which training program the Marine was in when the mishap occurred.
The student’s death was roughly a month after the school’s Command Sergeant Major was relieved of duty. Sgt. Maj. Steven M. Burkett was relieved as the school’s senior enlisted leader on July 13 “for a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to perform his duties,” according to a statement released to Marine Corps Times.
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