Marine Corps recruits with Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, complete the final hike of the Crucible at Camp Pendleton, Calif., April 22, 2021. (Alina Thackray/U.S. Marine Corps)
PARRIS ISLAND (Tribune News Service) — A Marine recruit was pronounced dead Tuesday morning at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island.
The recruit was found dead around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday after apparently falling from a balcony, according to Beaufort County Coroner David Ott.
The recruit’s name will not be released until 24 hours after the family has been told, Parris Island spokesperson Capt. Philip Kulczewski said in an email. The recruit was with the 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment.
The Naval Criminal Investigation Service is handling the investigation, Kulczewski said.
An autopsy for the recruit has been scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.
The death comes three months after another Marine recruit, Dalton Beals, died during the rigorous “Crucible” training exercise in June. There have been at least eight trainee deaths on Parris Island, one of only two Marine Corps training stations in the country, since 2000. An average of 19,000 recruits are trained there annually.
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