A 20-year-old female Marine was killed Tuesday, March 10, when the seven-ton truck she was in rolled over on a roadway in the United Arab Emirates during a training exercise.
Cpl. Eloiza Zavala, of Sacramento, a motor vehicle operator serving with Combat Logistics Battalion 13, was pronounced dead at the scene by medical first responders.
Zavala deployed for the training — known as Native Fury 20 — from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force at Camp Pendleton.
A second Marine, who was identified only as a lance corporal, was extracted from the truck with serious injuries and was evacuated to Sheikh Shakhbout Medical City in Abu Dhabi. A third Marine, also a lance corporal, suffered non-life threatening injuries and was taken to the Ruwais Medical Center in Abu Dhabi.
“This is a tragic accident, and we are praying for the loved ones of our lost and injured Marines,” Brig. Gen. Roberta Shea, commanding general of 1st Marine Logistics Group, said in a statement. “Our priority is assisting in medical recovery efforts and to provide comfort and assistance to their families, friends, and comrades during this trying time.”
The accident remains under investigation.
Zavala enlisted in the Marine Corps in April 2018, after graduating from Motor Transportation School at Fort Leonard Wood, in Missouri. She was assigned to Combat Logistics Battalion 1 at Camp Pendleton in December 2018. Her awards include a National Defense Service Medal and a Global War on Terror Service Medal.
She and the two injured Marines were among a group from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force deployed to the UAE in late February to train in Exercise Native Fury.
The exercise – a bi-annual event – includes thousands of forces who train for disasters and immediate threats and crises across the Middle East. The exercise includes maritime training such as amphibious assaults, logistics and shore attacks.
Training is conducted jointly with the U.S. Army and is intended to build relationships between the branches, as well as with international forces and between the U.S. and UAE, officials said. The Marines and sailors train in live-fire scenarios that could include off-loading personnel, equipment and humanitarian supplies.
Tuesday’s vehicle training rollover accident is among 17 that have killed troops since the start of 2019. On Monday, March 7, Staff Sgt. David W. Gallagher, 51, of Las Vegas, died after the Abrams M1A1 tank in which he and three other soldiers were traveling rolled over during a monthlong training exercise at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin. The other three Nevada Army Guard Soldiers were treated and released.
Training deaths in the Marine Corps and Army are a focus of the Government Accountability Office, which in October began a sweeping Army and Marine Corps-wide investigation into vehicle training deaths. The study is being conducted jointly with the House Armed Services Committee and the House Oversight Committee.
The GAO, which provides investigative services for the United States Congress, also will study how rollovers can be avoided and whether vehicles should be equipped with safety cages and seat belts. It is also reviewing how accident report data is collected and how accidents that are non-fatal are categorized.
The investigation was prompted by the family and fiancee of 1st Lt. Conor McDowell, a platoon leader with the 1st Light Armored Battalion, who was killed at Camp Pendleton on May 9.
McDowell, who would have turned 25 on March 11, and six Marines under his command were riding in a light armored vehicle, with McDowell positioned high in the turret with a gunner to his right. According to reports, the vehicle was traveling slowly along rough terrain, into a heavy marine layer that made it difficult to see, when it flipped into a deep ravine landing on its top and pinning McDowell.
In the “Line of Duty” incident report the McDowell family received, the 1st Marine Division exonerated McDowell from any fault in the accident. The report examined whether misconduct, negligence, or vehicle maintenance factored into the cause of the rollover.
Since the fatal accident, Conor McDowell’s parents, Michael McDowell and Susan Flanigan and his fiancee, Kathleen Isabel Bourque, have pursued lawmakers to make changes and stop the spate of deadly training accidents.
