A soldier attending Ranger School’s swamp phase in Florida died Thursday, according to military officials.
Spc. James A. Requenez, 28, was under the 6th Ranger Training Battalion at Eglin Air Force Base when his death occurred.
Requenez, a San Antonio, Texas, native, was an assistant machine gunner assigned to A Company, 3rd Battalion of the 75th Ranger Regiment on Fort Benning.
Officials at 6th Ranger Training Battalion did not immediately respond to a request for comment made by telephone Friday afternoon.
The circumstances under which Requenez died were not provided in the brief statement issued by Eglin AFB. Officials only said that he “died during training” and was taken to a hospital on base, where he was pronounced dead.
The incident leading to Requenez’s death is currently under investigation, officials added.
Requenez enlisted in the Army in April 2018, graduating from infantry one-station unit training in August of that same year.
He went on to complete Airborne School and Ranger Assessment and Selection Program 1, or RASP.
Ranger School is a leadership course open to the entire Army that lasts roughly 60 days and is divided into three phases, dubbed “Benning,” “Mountain,” and “Florida,” or swamp phase.
RASP is a selection course that screens soldiers who want to serve in the 75th Ranger Regiment, a special operations unit often used for direct action raids.
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.
