Someone sent us the sad news that 1st Lieutenant David Bauders, a 25-year-old Engineer officer with the Washington National Guard died in what the Pentagon called a “non-combat” incident at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq supporting Operation Inherent Resolve. According to USAToday;
[Guard spokesman Captain Joseph Siemandel] said Bauders’ death remained under investigation and that no details were immediately available.
Bauders was commissioned as an engineer in May 2013 after graduating from the University of Portland. The 176th specializes in construction, Siemandel said.
Yeah, but, you know, all of the deaths over there are “non-combat” if the Pentagon is to be believed these days.
Rest in peace, Lieutenant.
Amen. Gone far too soon.
Rest in peace, brother.
Rest Well
Salute
What a damn mess the story about the captain the other day is starting to make sense
He we go again ?
The Lt. was also a trooper with the Washington State Patrol. He was serving both community and country.
Rest in Peace Sir.
Rest in peace Sir. God be with your family now.
Military Engineering is a dangerous job.
We lost 3 in one 7 month deployment.
one in combat.
One on a what we call a remote site in Albania, had a rebar cage fall on him and was 3 hrs. away from medevac(passed in Germany blood clot)the other fell off a building in another remote site in Africa
R.I.P.sir
Rest in peace Lieutenant.
Apologies for making what may be a political comment, but by calling his death “non combat” how many bennies does his family get screwed out of.
RIP Lt.
I’m getting to the point were guys dying at 60 or 70 seems far too young for my liking but at 25…that’s a tragically young age.
May he rest in peace. Condolences and respect to his family.
A high school buddy was a combat engineer, USMC.
1371: COMBAT ENGINEER. A good guy, barely turned 20 y/o. But, LBJ needed to prove his manhood or some such foolishness. RIP, Brothers and Sisters.
Rest in peace, Sir.
In RVN, engineers and Corpsmen were overlooked until they were needed, but greatly respected when they did their thing. Just serving in any capacity has a risk added that civilians never understand.
You’ve climbed that mountain now son, time to rest. Job well done and realize God has his hand on your back. Rest in peace. Condolences to his loved ones.
We still are today brother and are working all over the world supporting combat units and doing that civil affairs type mission stuff no one wants to talk about, like all the work in Africa, South/Central America and middle east and Asia like the Islands of PI and Indonesia. Also every time a disaster hits guess who is the first on site doing recovery. Not all high speed but still dangerous.
Also a little unknown fact about RVN. There were Engineer teams working sense 1962 building up infrastructure that would be used by combat troops during the surge in 68. They also had teams working with SOG up north doing harts and mind shit and also lost life there like our MOH Marvin G Shield in 1965 at an ODA camp.
Bottom line you need Engineers and Medics to fight a war.
https://youtu.be/6jXrmAKBBTU
RIP Lt…
Your work here is done, it is very sad that you have gone home so soon…
What a waste, what a tragedy…
Just my two cents as an active duty officer….”non-combat related death” 9 times out of 10 unfortunately means you took your own life. I pray that’s not the case here, but something to consider. There’s no politics in the use of that phrase.
Sir, could be true but he is an MOS that is high risk of injury and possible death. Engineering is not an extremely safe job especially in a contingency environment. Have lost people from job site accidents.
example your up on a building and incoming alarm goes off, and you have to untie your safety harness to get down and you slip getting down.
Absolutely agree. I’ve seen my share of serious incidents as well. I was just responding to the other comments in the thread that implied the word choice was politically motivated to deny benefits. On that note, benefits are still given to survivors if the death isn’t combat related.
My nephew was a true HERO!! His life was taken too soon. He was sweet intelligent young man just beginning his life and enjoying what he loved to do. He will never be forgotten and is loved by so many. RIP David.
There were definitely weird politics at play in this one. The commander’s initial report contained one set of circumstances that were completely contradicted by the autopsy. His unit is “technically” in kuwait, and the guys have to fly back from Iraq every 90 days to kuwait because the US underreports how many troops are over there. Nobody in his unit can admit to being “there” when it happened, some said that he was found by Iraqi civilians, the mission is shady; they’re basically rebuilding a base America abandoned last time we pulled out in preparation for the Mosul dam breaking. LT got caught “reclaiming” some stuff. He was doing a mission the US isn’t supposed to be doing. At a base the platoon isn’t assigned to. His troops say that his commander “threw him under the bus,” but we don’t know. He received a military funeral with full honors and will always be a hero. <3