Camp Lejeune, NC - The Marine Corps has identified the Marine killed in a Wednesday night training accident at Camp Lejeune as 31-year-old SSgt. Jonathan Lewis of Warrenton, Virginia.
SSgt. Lewis was assigned to Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST), Company B, Marine Corps Security Force Regiment at Naval Weapons Station Yorktown.
The training accident occurred Wednesday night around 9:00 p.m. when a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter from Heavy Helicopter Squadron 464 (HMH-464), Marine Aircraft group-29, 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing based at MCAS New River experienced a hard landing.
Ssgt. Lewis' specialty was communications, according to Marine Corps officials. They say he was inside the helicopter when the incident occurred.
After the incident, SSgt. Lewis was airlifted to Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune and pronounced deceased at the hospital.
Seven other Marines were treated at Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune. Three additional Marines were transported to Onslow Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, NC. One Marine was taken to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville.
Only two Marines remain hospitalized at this time where they are reportedly stable.
The high-risk training the Marines were doing during the incident involved helicopter ropes suspension techniques, which trains Marines to rappel and fast-rope from every rotary and tilt-rotor platform in the Marine Corps inventory. That allows teams to deploy and provide better crisis response capability to locations across the world.
