A pair of special operations senior noncommissioned officers were killed over the weekend in off-duty incidents, according to releases from the Army.
Sgt. 1st Class Angel Alverio, 37, died Saturday in a car crash while visiting home in Bothell, Washington. Sgt. 1st Class Justin Goff, 29, died in a parachuting accident at a civilian facility in Ocean Isle, North Carolina.
“Despite all of the time away he sacrificed for his Nation he made the time and effort to be a part of his family, a son, a husband and a father to those he loved so much,” 7th Special Forces Group commander Col. Patrick Colloton said in a release following Alverio’s death. “Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers while they navigate this difficult time.”
Alverio was assigned to the group’s support battalion, according to the release. Further details of his service were not available. He is survived by his wife and four children.
Goff, an infantryman and instructor at Fort Bragg, North Carolina’s John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, is survived by his wife and three children, according to a release from Army Special Operations Command.
Civilian authorities are investigating the accident, according to the release.
Wind may have been a factor in the accident, the Associated Press reported. The director of the Cape Fear Regional Jetport, where Goff was jumping, told the Wilmington Star News that his employees had seen Goff’s parachute collapse as he descended.
[After a brief respite, special operations parachute deaths are up this year]
Goff was the second special operations soldier to die in a parachuting accident last week. Sgt. 1st Class Nicholas Sheperty, a West Virginia National Guardsman, died during a training accident in Suffolk, Virginia, on April 17.
Meghann Myers is the Pentagon bureau chief at Military Times. She covers operations, policy, personnel, leadership and other issues affecting service members.
