Mystery surrounds deaths of Special Forces soldier, 37, and a veteran whose bodies were discovered in a training area on Fort Bragg
The bodies of an active-duty Special Forces soldier and an Army veteran were discovered earlier this week in a training area at Fort Bragg, where one of the deceased men was said to be wrapped in a blanket.
A statement from the North Carolina post said the bodies were found on Wednesday and that their deaths are not related to official unit training.
On Friday, one of the two men was identified as Master Sgt. William Lavigne II, 37. He was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, U.S. Army Special Operations Command.
Master Sgt. William Lavigne II, 37, a Special Forces solider, was identified on Friday as one of the two men who were found dead in a training area at Fort Bragg
The other man was identified as Army veteran Timothy Dumas, 44, who previously served at Fort Bragg.
Dumas was a resident of Pinehurst, North Carolina. No additional information about him has been released.
WRAL reported, citing an unnamed source familiar with the matter, that one body was found lying flat on the ground. The other was wrapped in a blanket near a pickup truck.
'The loss of a Soldier is always tragic,' Lt. Col. Justin Duvall, commander of HHC, U.S. Army Special Operations Command, said in a statement. 'Master Sgt. Lavigne dedicated himself to the Army for 19 years and deployed multiple times in the defense of our Nation. Our condolences go out to his family during this difficult time.'
Lavigne enlisted in the Army in 2001 and deployed multiple times to Afghanistan and Iraq in support of the Global War on Terrorism.
A source said one of the bodies was found lying flat, while the other was wrapped in a blanket next to a pickup truck. According to officials at Fort Bragg, the deaths are not related to official unit training
In 2007, he graduated from the Special Forces Qualification Course and was assigned to the 1st Special Forces with a follow on assignment to US Army Special Operations Command.
The deaths are being investigated by special agents from the Army Criminal Investigation Command.
Fort Bragg, covering nearly 172,000 acres, is one of the world’s largest military complexes, according to its website. It has approximately 57,000 military personnel, 11,000 civilian employees and 23,000 family members.
The base was in the news this week after an autopsy report revealed that a Fort Bragg paratrooper who went missing during a camping trip with fellow soldiers in May had been decapitated.
In October, Fort Bragg made headlines when a civilian worker on the base lewdly replied to pornographic content from Fort Bragg's official Twitter account, which was later deleted
A few weeks prior, tragedy struck on the base in North Carolina when Staff Sgt. Jason Lowe, 27, serving with the 82nd Airborne Division took his own life.
Lowe's was the tenth suicide the 82nd Airborne Division has endured so far this year, a number that stood at four last year. In 2018, six division paratroopers took their own lives; four did so in 2017.