Special Forces Soldiers die from non-battle incident

[rab97]

MSG Simmons was one of my TAC's for Student CO and Rada was in my Delta class. He did indeed help us all through a certain portion of the course. RIP and God speed.

[X-ray]

My thoughts and prayers go out to the families of those men. Rest in peace.

[Debo]

Rest in Peace

[Stras]

There's a Memorial Service at JFK Chapel on the 15th of Jul 08 for our Brother Warriors.

I saw the Pimblegram, but can't remember the time... I'll update this in the morning with the time.

[greenberetTFS]

RIP Brother Warriors.......

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Stras

There's a Memorial Service at JFK Chapel on the 15th of Jul 08 for our Brother Warriors.

I saw the Pimblegram, but can't remember the time... I'll update this in the morning with the time.

17 July, 1000 hrs., JFK Chapel.

TR

[Fazoli_06]

RIP Brothers.

[d1eg01]

An Army Green Beret from Imperial Beach died because he chose to save a comrade from drowning last month in Afghanistan, the surviving soldier said.

Sgt. James Treber and two other soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group drowned June 29 when the road under their heavily armored truck collapsed, causing the vehicle to roll into a canal.


Sgt. James Treber
The fourth Green Beret stayed alive by clinging to an air pocket until other soldiers pulled the truck out of the canal 40 minutes later.

That air pocket originally was Treber's, the survivor said during a phone interview from Afghanistan. But Treber left the spot to free the soldier from his safety belt and body armor as the two struggled in the darkness against rising water. Then Treber brought him to the air pocket before going to find another one.

Treber died shortly afterward. He was 24.

“That night, he paid the ultimate price to save my life,” said the Green Beret, who isn't being named because the Pentagon doesn't allow Special Forces personnel to be identified.

The military completed an investigation into the incident last week and plans to brief the soldiers' families soon. A spokesman for the Army's Special Operations Command said he couldn't comment until then.

Treber's family and friends were moved to hear about his heroism.

“My first instinct was to grab a butcher knife and cut my heart out,” said his mother, Laurie Treber, who lives in Fort Mohave, Ariz. “I get angry knowing that he let somebody else take his air. But then I get very proud.”

Treber's brother said the story doesn't surprise him.

“He'd always put other people before himself,” said Gordon Treber of National City.

The actions were in keeping with Treber's character, said Army Capt. LaRissa Gonzales Mareno of Fort Riley, Kan., a close friend since the two attended Mar Vista High School in Imperial Beach.

“That's how he was raised. That's how he was trained,” she said. “He's somebody that I hope all my future soldiers will be like.”

Treber lived in the San Diego area from age 6 until he joined the Army in 2005.

“He was always a daredevil,” said his father, Gordon Treber Sr., who has lived in Astoria, Ore., since retiring from the Navy in 2004. “He didn't just want a bicycle. It had to be a stunt bike.”

James Treber found his niche after joining Mar Vista's Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program his freshman year. He excelled at drill and physical-fitness contests, but he also liked to help his teammates make the grade.

Treber's instructor pegged him as a military leader early on. Whenever Treber finished a competitive run – in first place, naturally – he would keep going along with the slower students, encouraging them to soldier on.

“He was just head-and-shoulders stronger and faster than the other kids,” said John Strait, Treber's JROTC instructor at Mar Vista High.

Treber signed up as a civilian sailor with the Military Sealift Command through a high school training program before graduating from Mar Vista in 2002. Although the program enabled him to travel on the high seas, he found the life too slow-paced.

He then worked for some time on a cruise ship that steamed from San Francisco to Portland, Ore.

In 2005, he called his dad to break the news that he had enlisted in the Army and wanted to join the elite Green Berets. They joked about the Army-Navy rivalry, but the elder Treber worried about his son's safety.

Minutes after hanging up the phone, Gordon Treber Sr. heard the radio play “Arlington,” a song about a soldier who died in combat and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C.

“I got a feeling I was going to end up going there,” he said.

Last year, James Treber married Tamila Henderson. He also graduated from Special Forces training and then deployed with his unit to Afghanistan in May.

“He wanted to make a difference in the war – maybe be a hero. And he was a hero,” said Brenda Pineiro, a JROTC friend of Treber's who joined the Marine Corps and has served combat tours in Iraq.

On June 29, Treber and three other soldiers were traveling in an RG-31 Mine Resistant Armor Protected truck, a 9-ton behemoth whose V-shaped hull is highly resistant to roadside bombs.

But like many heavily armored vehicles, it's top-heavy and prone to rollovers, particularly on the poorly built roads in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a June report from the Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned.

A review of Pentagon announcements about combat deaths in those two war zones shows that more than 100 service members have died in vehicle rollovers since 2001.

The Associated Press reported nearly 40 rollovers involving MRAPs between November and June. Two of those crashes were fatal, including the one that killed Treber; Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Radamorales, 32; and Master Sgt. Shawn Simmons, 39.

“Road shoulders in the Middle East do not meet U.S. standards and may collapse under the weight of the MRAP, especially when the road is above grade and can fall to lower ground,” said a recent Marine Corps safety newsletter.

That's precisely what happened to the truck carrying Treber and his three fellow soldiers, the surviving Green Beret said. The soft road gave way as the vehicle traveled in a convoy in rural Kandahar province.

The truck rolled into a canal and landed upside down.

“I was knocked unconscious by some ammo cans,” said the soldier who survived. “I came to when the water was rising over my face.”

Hemmed in by debris, the Green Beret couldn't reach his safety belt. He shouted for help.

Treber, who had been sitting one seat ahead of him, had found an air pocket. He left it and dived underwater to free the desperate Green Beret from his belt and body armor.

Then Treber pulled him into the air pocket he had been using. The two soldiers realized, though, that the space wasn't big enough for both of them. So Treber went to find another air pocket as both men tried in vain to open the locked doors.

Only when the truck was pulled out did the Green Beret realize that all three of his comrades had died. He told his colleagues about Treber's actions and shared the same information with his father in an e-mail.

“I'll do everything possible to make sure Sgt. James Treber's story is told,” the Green Beret said. “His (home)town needs to know who their heroes are.”

The surviving soldier's father, Joseph Serna of Atascadero, who agreed to be identified, said: “You want to be happy, but you feel sadness. My wife cries all the time. We're really mourning. We're hurting for the families.”

Serna said his son's four children, ages 8 to 15, are staying this summer with him and his wife, Beatrice. His son's second wife, who's from San Diego, is pregnant with the couple's first child, a boy.

The couple plan to name him Matthew, which was Treber's middle name.

Treber's body was flown back for a July 8 service at Fort Bragg, N.C. His wife keeps half of his cremated remains in an urn at their home.

The other half was inurned in a memorial wall, in keeping with Treber's wishes, after a service with full military honors – at Arlington, just as his father had feared.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...n26treber.html

RIP Quiet Professionals

[vsvo]

RIP gentlemen

[Dan]

RELEASE NUMBER: 080821-01
DATE POSTED: AUGUST 21, 2008

Special Forces Soldier died while saving teammate
USASFC Public Affairs Office

FORT BRAGG, N.C. (USASOC News Service, Aug. 21, 2008) – An Army Special Forces Soldier died heroically in a June vehicle accident when he gave his life to save a comrade from drowning in Afghanistan, according to the lone surviving Soldier from the vehicle accident.

Master Sgt. Shawn E. Simmons, Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey M. Rada Morales and Sgt. James M. Treber, all from Company A, 1st Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne), drowned June 29 when, under the cover of darkness, their heavily armored vehicle (RG-31) dropped off a narrow, unimproved dirt road and rolled upside down into a water-filled canal.

Following recovery efforts performed by the rest of the combat convoy, Sgt. 1st Class Joseph A. Serna, was found alive but suffering from hypothermia and hypoxia.

An investigation into the events that led to the rollover of their RG-31 Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP) was conducted by the Combined Joint Task Force – 101, the American, division-sized task force in eastern Afghanistan. The results of that investigation have been formally briefed to the primary next of kin of the deceased Soldiers.

Serna’s sworn statement concerning the accident reveals that, in the immediate aftermath of the rollover, he was trapped in the passenger compartment by ammunition cans and unable to free himself as water began filling the vehicle.

“I was covered in ammo cans so I couldn’t release my seatbelt, at which time the water began to fill up inside the cab (and) I became totally submerged in my seat,” Serna said in his statement. “I felt a hand come down and unfasten my seatbelt and release my body armor. Sergeant Treber picked me up and moved me to a small pocket of air.”

That air pocket originally was Treber's, who had been sitting one seat ahead of Serna during the operation. However, once Treber freed Serna from where he was trapped, he left that air pocket to Serna after determining that there was not enough air in that particular pocket for both men to breathe as the two struggled in the darkness against frigid and rising water.

“He knew there was not enough room for both of us to breathe so he went under water to find another pocket of air,” Serna stated. “Once he reemerged we attempted to open the door and hatches with no success.”

Serna’s statement indicates that he blacked out shortly thereafter and, before his comrades were able to save them, Treber, Simmons and Rada Morales all died.

“Sergeant Treber’s selfless actions are in keeping with those traditions internalized within the ranks of our Regiment,” stated Brig. Gen. Michael S. Repass, Commanding General, U.S. Army Special Forces Command located at Fort Bragg, N.C. “Valor and sacrifice were not mere words to Sergeant Treber. Rather, he lost his life living the Warrior Ethos. The great sacrifice and courage which Soldiers like Sergeant Treber exhibit each day inspire us to protect the values and ideals of this great country.”

At the 7th SFG(A) unit memorial ceremony July 17, Treber was remembered as a hero that gave his all even though it may have contributed to his death.

The Commander 7th SFG (A), and also Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force – Afghanistan, Col. Sean P. Mulholland, was unable to attend the unit memorial ceremony at Fort Bragg but provided his comments to be read during the ceremony.

“Shawn (Simmons), Jeffrey (Rada Morales) and James (Treber) believed in what our country stands for, and lived their (lives) to the utmost,” said Mulholland’s statement. “Their courage, dedication, commitment, heroism and lives will always remain present in our minds and hearts…”

Treber’s Operational Detachment Alpha commander in Afghanistan, Capt. Casey Galligan, was also not able to make it to the unit memorial. His personal statement was read during the ceremony as well. It said he felt blessed to have had Sgt. Treber on his team.

During his short time in the detachment “we watched Sgt. Treber become a man,” Galligan said. “A man that gave his life to same another; there is no greater action or sacrifice.”

One of Treber’s teammates made the trip back from Afghanistan to speak at the unit memorial. His comments were some of the most emotional during the event.
“The most important thing I will always remember (James) Treber for, and I will think about everyday, are his final actions on that fateful night,” stated Staff Sgt. Jonathan Davis, an ODA teammate that was in the convoy the night the accident occurred. “(James) Treber saved my teammate’s life, for that, I will forever be grateful.”
Half of Treber’s cremated remains were interned in a memorial wall, in keeping with his wishes, after a service with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Treber's wife keeps the other half in an urn at their home.

Serna has recovered from his injuries and is back serving with his unit in Afghanistan.
--usasoc--