{"id":79845,"date":"2022-08-17T17:16:15","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T17:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/08\/17\/wind-blew-tree-onto-sheltering-soldiers-killing-2-loss-report-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:09:59","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:09:59","slug":"wind-blew-tree-onto-sheltering-soldiers-killing-2-loss-report-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/2022\/08\/17\/wind-blew-tree-onto-sheltering-soldiers-killing-2-loss-report-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Wind blew tree onto sheltering soldiers, killing 2, loss report says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wind blew a large portion of a tree onto five Ranger School students who were spreading out to take shelter amid a storm warning, killing two and injuring three others on Aug. 9 at Fort Benning, Georgia, according to a preliminary loss report from the Army Combat Readiness Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staff Sgt. George Taber and 2nd Lt. Evan Fitzgibbon<\/a> were the two students killed, Army officials announced previously. Both soldiers were in student-status and conducting mountaineering training at Fort Benning when the incident occurred at 3:15 p.m. on Aug. 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After lightning strikes were recorded within 10 miles of Yonah Mountain, instructors sent the students into lightning-lockdown procedures. As the soldiers spread out, the wind knocked over a large portion of a tree onto five of them, the loss report revealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnit medics transported the two fatally injured soldiers off the mountainside and transferred the soldiers onto local ambulances with the unit physician\u2019s assistant assisting along the way,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report does not reveal whether the soldiers succumbed to their injuries on the way to the medical center or after arriving there.<\/p>\n\n\n\t