An Army Latino sergeant who was training to be an instructor was found dead Monday after failing to return from on-site navigation practice at a South Carolina base, authorities said.
Rescue crews found Sgt. Jaime Contreras, 40, nearly 11 hours after he was supposed to have finished the three-hour tour at Fort Jackson near Columbia, the state capital city.
His body was found just 50 meters (164 feet) from the route he was supposed to follow as part of his training. He didn't stray too far from his route, "but this terrain is unforgiving," said Maj. John Farrell, director of Emergency Services at the Army's largest training base.
The sergeant was in the eighth week of training, out of a total of 10.
Sergeant Jaime Contreras.Fort Jackson
Brig. Gen. Jason Kelly, commander of Fort Jackson, released few details about what happened to Contreras, saying only that an investigation was ongoing. He did not say whether there were signs that a crime had been committed.
"We don't know the cause of his deviation from the route, if any, or his death," Kelly said at a news conference Wednesday.
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Contreras trained at the South Carolina base but was stationed at Fort Liberty, another base in North Carolina. There he was a member of the 82nd Airborne Division. The soldier lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, Kelly said.
"We are providing support to his family and his peers, and we will continue to do so," Kelly said.
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In an email sent to Noticias Telemundo, Fort Jackson indicated that Contreras had 12 years of service and belonged to the First Battalion of the 319th Airborne Artillery Regiment, belonging to the 82nd Artillery Division.
The statement expanded that he had belonged to the 82nd Airborne Division since January 2014, as a Food Service Operations Petty Officer and Advanced Culinary Petty Officer.
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Contreras earned an honorable mention from the Army during a deployment to Afghanistan in 2013, while stationed in the 6th Squadron, 6th Cavalry Regiment, belonging to the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, in the 10th Mountain Division, the statement expanded.
Soldiers participate in training on Family Day at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, on Sept. 28, 2022.Scott Olson/Getty Images
The on-the-ground navigation training Contreras participated in included the use of maps, compasses and other tools to find certain points in an area of 2.3 square miles (607 hectares).
Contreras had been in a similar workout with a colleague on Friday. On Monday, more than 90 soldiers training to be drill sergeants were sent on individual missions, Army officials said.
The tour was supposed to run from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. When Contreras failed to return around 2 p.m., Fort Jackson began a massive search, which included local and state troopers, Farrell said.
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Rescuers were able to locate a signal from Contreras' mobile phone. Aircraft and crews on the ground found his body Monday about 11:30 p.m., Farrell said.
Without knowing exactly what points Contreras was trying to reach, it's hard to know how far off the road he was, Farrell said. "[Contreras] was not very far from the limits of the route area," he said.
"A good soldier, son and father"
Jaime Contreras Sr., the sergeant's father who lives in Flagstaff, Arizona, told Noticias Telemundo that his son "was a good soldier, son and father. We love him very much and we will miss him. When I learned [of his death] I was devastated: a father should not lose a child."
He stressed that the sergeant "was loved by his colleagues in arms, by the people who worked with him. He was an excellent cook and teacher. He loved his job and loved his children."
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He added that "the sergeants [who have the mission of communicating these facts] first went to see his mother [on Tuesday morning], advised her and offered her the condolences of the secretary of the Army."
"Then they came to see me at my house... The officers, the sergeants are helping us a lot and are giving us all the necessary information," he said.
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Sr. Contreras said that "we are now in the process of going through all of this [...] The plan is to bring him home for his military ceremony with honors and a religious service."
At least four recruits have died at Fort Jackson between 2020 and 2022. Two of the deceased were found unconscious in their barracks. In one case, one of the soldiers died after collapsing in the middle of physical training. Another died as a result of wounds at a firing range.
With information from The Associated Press and The Post and Courier