A Marine trainee was shot and killed in a nighttime live-fire training exercise held Thursday by the Corps’ School of Infantry-West at the Camp Pendleton base in California.
The deceased was not initially identified in Marine Corps statements made Friday, pending next-of-kin notification.
Lance Cpl. Joseph Whaley, 20, of Maury County, Tennessee, was in his fourth week of 13 in the entry-level reconnaissance course for the Marines, the Marine Corps Training and Education Command explained in a statement to the privately published Marine Corps Times newspaper Saturday.
Whaley had earned the National Defense Service Medal prior to his death; issuance of the medal has ceased as of Jan. 1., 2023.
“The command is fully cooperating with the investigation efforts,” Marine Corps Training and Education Command spokesperson Maj. Joshua Pena told the Department of Defense’s Stars and Stripes newspaper.
Maj. Pena also explained that information on the exact chain of events that led to Whaley’s death are part of an ongoing investigatory probe, and as such was not immediately available to the public.
The incident comes just over a month after Sgt. Maj. Steven Burkett was relieved of his command at SOI-W for “a loss of trust and confidence in his ability to perform his duties,” on the part of his commanding officers, Maj. Pena explained to the Marine Corps Times.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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