A 19-year-old soldier died in a car accident while home on leave Monday night, according to his command.
Pfc. Patrick Giannone, who served as an information technology specialist, died while home on leave in Spotsylvania, Virginia.
Giannone was not at the wheel of the vehicle when the crash occurred at roughly 11 p.m. Both he and the driver were wearing seat-belts when the driver lost control of a 2013 Volkswagen GTI, ran off of the right side of a roadway and collided with a tree, according to a Virginia State Police statement.
Giannone died at the scene, while the other occupant of the vehicle was taken to a local hospital, police said.
Charges are still pending in the case, but alcohol and drugs are not factors in the accident, Virginia State Police officer Sgt. Brent Coffey told Army Times.
Giannone was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 1st Special Forces Group, out of Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, 1st Group commander Col. Owen G. Ray said Wednesday.
“It is with great sadness that I inform you that we lost one of our own yesterday,” Ray said in a statement. “Patrick arrived to 1SFG (A) last year and was known across his section, company and battalion for his relentless work ethic and dedication to his profession and his team.”
Friends and family of Giannone started posting pictures and memories of the young soldier on a public Facebook group following his death. Friends of Giannone posted about the local auto hobby group he participated in and memories of him attending prom, graduating high school and heading off to boot camp.
Kyle Rempfer was an editor and reporter who has covered combat operations, criminal cases, foreign military assistance and training accidents. Before entering journalism, Kyle served in U.S. Air Force Special Tactics and deployed in 2014 to Paktika Province, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq.
