A Hawaii Marine was crushed to death during training in California last March by a lost bulldozer driver who did not see the Marines sleeping in shallow foxholes in the darkness and ran over the 20-year-old, an investigation into his death found.
Pfc. Casey Holmes was with the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, and training for a deployment to Okinawa at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif., when he was killed in the 10:50 p.m. incident March 11.
A tanklike amphibious assault vehicle and other Marines were nearby, and a Marine near Holmes awoke and rolled away as the big dozer passed near him and killed Holmes.
"I don’t know what woke me up first, but there were bright lights and some type of AAV moving super close to me — so close I believed the right side track was going to run over me," a Marine whose name is blacked out in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service report said.
He then realized it was a bulldozer and that Holmes had been run over.
The driver of the Marine Corps bulldozer with the First Combat Engineer Battalion had his hands on his head yelling, "Oh my God! Oh my God!" and the Marine who rolled away said he "broke down and started bawling" when he realized what had happened.
Two bulldozers were directed to a location to dig a ditch to be used by the Hawaii Marines, but the battalion decided to move the location, according to the investigation, which was recently obtained by the Chico (Calif.) Enterprise-Record newspaper and posted online. All names except Holmes’ were blacked out by the Marine Corps.
The lead bulldozer driver said he got lost en route to the new destination and that even with lights the dust made it hard to see. He said he did not see any Marines until one rolled away on the ground.
Holmes’ squad leader and other Marines were described waving their hands as they attempted to get the bulldozer to stop.
No ground guide was used, which is standard safety procedure. The bulldozer driver reported that no guide was required or used because he believed he was operating the heavy equipment in open desert with no Marines present.
"Neither alcohol nor drugs are believed to be a factor and no criminal causality is suspected in this death," the NCIS report stated. The preliminary cause of death was multiple blunt force trauma, and preliminary manner of death was an accident.
Holmes was from Chico, Calif. The Enterprise-Record said between 500 and 600 friends and family attended a memorial service for him later in March.
