But she was acquainted with Timothy Dumas, the 44-year-old veteran who was found dead alongside him. But my brother was murdered back in May. At least 170 Afghan civilians were killed. July 15, 2021 (24 years old) View obituary. His use of alcohol was of even greater concern. July 17, 2021 (83 years old) View obituary. Thats when he made the statement that if I wanted my husband gone, he could take care of it, she says. She claims to have known Lavigne well, and to have seen him do cocaine, crystal meth, and heroin. A Fort Bragg spokesperson identified the soldier as Sgt. The Armys Criminal Investigative Command, or CID, also concluded that the homicide was justified, likewise for reasons that it refuses to make public. In early 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic descended on the United States, his run-ins with the law became more frequent. Most immediately, though, the discovery of Lavignes body represented a problem for the leadership at Fort Bragg. Tammy Mabey, Leshikars mom, had spent 18 years in law enforcement, working as a dispatcher, a jailer, and a patrolwoman in California, Idaho, and Nevada. The camera flash has rendered his retinas red. Tracie Augusta Smith. Click the "subscribe'' link at the top of this article. This data emerged amid increasing awareness of rising rates of drug use notably of cocaine and steroids in the Special Operations Forces. He stands in front of a parking lot at night, a middle-aged, broad-chested black man with a shaved head, dressed in whiskered jeans and a shirt with vertical stripes. He was promoted to master sergeant in July 2019, becoming an operations team sergeant for a Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha, officials said. The remaining three are still at large from incidents in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Queens, N.Y., and Detroit, Mich. She has photos of a tub of used syringes found in Lewis closet, including vials of drostanalone propionate and trenbolone acetate, both of which are illicit anabolic steroids that can cause severe mood disturbances. Most of Billys friends or associates, Ive talked to or met, says his father. Fayetteville Police did not respond to multiple requests for more information. It included Dumas name and the type of handgun he used, but its not clear if he was taken into custody. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, May 13th 2023 at the Veteran's Hall (360 N Harrison St, Fort Bragg, CA Were still looking into it.. 0:04. Jamie Wyatt Boger, of Ohio, was found unresponsive in his barracks room on March 16, officials said in a news release. Pfc. Nathan Goodman, 36, of Hope Mills, died Jan. 14, 2020, in a free-fall training exercise near Eloy, Arizona. More: Fort Bragg paratroopers killed in Afghanistan remembered for their sacrifice. I was never a detective, she says, but even the limited crime-scene investigation that Ive done tells me these guys are full of shit. I could never take anything serious.. It would be an exaggeration to say that Fayetteville must be a more dangerous duty station than Raqqa or Kandahar, and yet piecing together data provided by Col. Buccino, and previous Army disclosures to the McClatchy news agency, as well as reports in the local media, I count no fewer than 44 active-duty deaths at Fort Bragg during 2020. Its just like taking an antidepressant, he would say. Acid is the most commonly abused substance on post, in Romeros estimation, because people think its impossible to detect through urinalysis (its not). 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. Early Saturday afternoon, park rangers had approached the group from Fort Bragg to ask them to move their vehicles, which were encroaching on protected sand dunes. More generally, how many active duty service members had traces of misused prescription medication or illicit drugs in their system at the time of death? I dont know any soldier who has done the tours he had done that doesnt., That was certainly the case with Lavigne. Through the intercom she says that she is just as clueless as anyone else and that she and Dumas led separate lives.. They are ghosts. He was a three-time volunteer who enlisted in the Army in May 2019 and reported to his first duty assignment at Fort Bragg in October. But he had a gun. There was another vivid memory that particularly bothered him: walking through the rubble of a demolished city with a Belgian Malinois, a service dog, and allowing the animal to eat the brains from a dead mans broken skull as a treat.. He was repeatedly arrested for possession of untaxed liquor, failure to return rented property, and permitting a minor to consume alcohol. Fort Bragg soldier found dead in barracks; mother questions death It far surpassed Fort Hood, where 28 soldier deaths in 2020 led to a congressional investigation, a sweeping indictment of the installations toxic culture, and the dismissal of most of the chain of command. He wasnt looking for another rank or another award, Allen said. 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. Ballard, the only full-time detective in Vass, didnt know Billy Lavigne. She shows me the brief clip on her phone. The discovery of Lavignes and Dumas bodies also raised hard questions for local law enforcement in Fayetteville, which may be home to Fort Bragg, the largest Army base in the U.S., but remains a relatively small Southern town, whose red-brick historical center, built around a white clock tower, quickly gives way to the strip-mall sprawl of discount supermarkets, hamburger drive-throughs, gun stores, and Baptist churches. He served as an Army sergeant for almost seven years and was deployed three times with one combat tour in Iraq. 'These Kids Are Dying' Inside the Overdose Crisis Sweeping Fort Bragg And he fell down on the ground and Uncle Billy kept shooting him. Leave a sympathy message to the family on the memorial page of Carol Ann Brown to pay them a last tribute. His home burned. The 50 Worst Decisions in Music History A soulless expression would come over him, like he was looking through you, when he got to drinking, Nicole says. More like brothers, says Leshikars 31-year-old sister, Nicole, who spent three weeks hanging out with them in February 2018. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, May 13th 2023 at the Veteran's Hall (360 N Harrison St, Fort Bragg, CA To date, the House Armed Services Committee seems not to have noticed the similar pattern at Fort Bragg. In recent years, whistleblowers have alleged that the use of hard drugs is widespread among special operators. Its known from postmortem toxicology that Leshikar was taking Valium, tramadol, MDMA, and cocaine. It's a tremendous loss for all of us,Carroll said. His whole world was his children and his wife.. 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. Eric Christopher Hogan and Pfc. Hughes was an unmanned aerial vehicle operator assigned to the A Troop, 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division. Well, I got 120.. In his LinkedIn photo, Dumas looks fairly nondescript. Lois Ruth Collins. You would not believe how many people I have reached out to. He once saw him using LSD at a barracks party, he says. User may use CAC to register and log in. According to military records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, a hard-to-believe 105 soldiers assigned to the base died stateside in 2020 and 2021. Sgt. Kiss Paul Stanley Has 'Thoughts' About Parents Who Support Kids Gender Identities Absolutely. I killed my best friend, he said, according to Patino. Goodman completed four deployments to Afghanistan, one to Iraq, two to Africa, and one to Kyrgyzstan, the statement said. Keiths mom, Lynda Lewis, tells me that her son should have been expelled from the Army back in 2016, when he assaulted Sarah and got into an armed standoff with the Fayetteville police. He was still a very active, decorated soldier.. Support local journalism with a subscription to The Fayetteville Observer. The police came and he was arrested in possession of cocaine, a digital scale, a crack pipe, a revolver, a hunting rifle, a snub-nosed pistol, and a pump-action shotgun. 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. Only his severed head had been found. 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. In response to these and other embarrassments, including President Trumps pardon of former SEAL Eddie Freaking Evil Gallagher, the commander of all special-operations forces, Gen. Richard Clarke, ordered a comprehensive ethics review in August 2019. She and her husband, a Navy submariner, were moving to North Carolina, and stayed for a time at Leshikars apartment. Virtually everything to do with this organization is classified, says Sean Naylor, author of Relentless Strike, a history of JSOC. He was two years younger than Lavigne and had recently completed Special Forces selection, a rugged, punishing Fort Bragg program known as the Q-course. Mount is survived by his wife and parents. 1st Class Nikyisha T. Boyd, 35, of Kissimmee, Florida, died Nov. 9, from injuries suffered during a traffic accident, officials said. The recent reports of fatal drug overdoses out of military installations like Fort Bragg are alarming, Sen. Markey said in a statement to Rolling Stone. Army vet Timothy Dumas, 44, was found shot and killed alongside Lavigne. Two months later, someone nearly died of a heroin overdose at Lavignes house. Miguel Angel Villalon, 21, of Joliet, Illinois, was killed in the same incident. 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. He was taken home that same night by some of his Delta Force teammates. Enrique Roman-Martinez of Fort Braggs 82nd Airborne Division was beheaded during a camping trip with six other soldiers. 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. As soon as the rockets began to burst, We had to get out of there. Her brother enlisted for a steady paycheck and for the GI Bill. Fort Bragg is home to two of the most important formations in the Pentagons sprawling, complex special-operations bureaucracy: the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, or USASOC, which includes the Rangers and the Green Berets; and JSOC, the black ops component of the military. A burial was held on Monday, April 24th 2023 at the Rose Memorial Park (760 N Franklin St, Fort Bragg, CA 95437). He was getting clean.. Dumas and his dreadlocked sidekick went into the apartment across the corridor, and she went into hers. In late May, a 21-year-old enlisted man from California was killed beheaded, in fact while on a camping trip with six of his fellow paratroopers; once again, no arrests have been made in the case. He called me and said, Mom, Ive got a gun to my head. Nevertheless, local officials were satisfied by Lavignes claim of self-defense. Over time though, he grew on me.. Though the offense was a felony, he was not charged. A pixelated face is the apogee of the operator aesthetic, which begins with long hair, a bushy beard, and a checkered keffiyeh worn around the neck. Taking part in and witnessing violence, being away from home for long periods of time, and disillusionment with the mission can put special operators at heightened risk, Donati says, of divorce, alcoholism, substance abuse, and anger issues.

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