At least 17 Guard members have died while deployed to Texas border to help deter crime
www.stripes.com
At least 17 Texas National Guard members have died while deployed on the state’s three-year-old mission to deter criminal activity at the U.S. border with Mexico, according to state military officials.

At least 17 Texas National Guard members have died while deployed on the state’s three-year-old mission to deter criminal activity at the U.S. border with Mexico, according to state military officials.

Of those, the families of four service members received the newly authorized $500,000 death benefit and six families are waiting for a determination on whether they are eligible for the money. The remaining cases were denied the benefit or the service member had no eligible relative to receive the money.

The Texas Military Department has been tightlipped about troops serving at the border, though how many troops have died in connection to the mission came out during a hearing last week of the Texas House Committee on Defense and Veterans’ Affairs. Members heard from state officials regarding implementation of a new law to provide death benefits for troops who die while on state missions.

Read more at: https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2024-08-27/texas-national-guard-death-benefits-border-mission-14993111.html Source - Stars and Stripes

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20240829114658/https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/2024-08-27/texas-national-guard-death-benefits-border-mission-14993111.html

  • Jaderick@lemmy.world
    73·
    3 months ago

    The incidents on the border mission that led to troops dying have varied. Some of the soldier deaths reported include one who died from a medical emergency at a hotel where troops were staying in McAllen, and another who was accidentally shot in Fort Clark Springs. Two other soldiers died in a traffic accident in Laredo — one in the accident and the other by suicide in the minutes after the crash. At least four additional soldiers have died by suicide while assigned to the border.

    • the Sergeant who drowned trying to save people in the Rio Grande

    This article is a ride and it makes this national guard deployment look even worse.

    • wjrii@lemmy.worldEnglish
      28·
      3 months ago

      This whole thing has been a travesty, but then, what else is new with statewide politics in Texas? Abbott is demanding lengthy deployments within a geographically huge state and upending these “part-time” servicemembers’ lives, yet somehow also half-assing everything. They have no clear mission. They have no reasonable facilities. They have no productive coordination with federal resources (because this whole thing is an exclusively federal mandate). It’s all fucked, because the primary-voting GOP base actively hates brown people and the rest of the party couldn’t give a shit about anyone who doesn’t vote for them.

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
      21·
      3 months ago

      Two other soldiers died in a traffic accident in Laredo — one in the accident and the other by suicide in the minutes after the crash

      What the actual fuck?

      • DragonTypeWyvern
        7·
        3 months ago

        Murder/Suicide, right? And the Guard doesn’t want to admit the murder part, so Suicide guy just accidentally rammed his Charger into the other person’s car at 50 mph in a parking lot.

        • brbposting@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          10·
          3 months ago

          Found a different story:

          A 27-year-old guardsman is driving a Ford F150 just before 2 AM on the highway. The truck rolls over. The 27-year-old passenger guardsman is ejected(?) (“thrown off from the truck”). The driver performs CPR on the passenger unsuccessfully. The driver takes his own life.

            • Billiam@lemmy.world
              4·
              3 months ago

              Driver FAFO’ed and offed himself instead of facing the consequences?

              That’s the only thing that makes sense here.