Army names soldier killed in JBER car crash

UPDATE, Wednesday:

The Army has identified the soldier killed in Sunday’s collision on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson as a California mechanic two months into his Alaska assignment.

According to an 11th Airborne Division statement issued Wednesday, Pfc. Arath Esau Martinez-Arguelles, 20, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., was assigned to the 6th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne). He joined the Army in June 2022, and reported for duty in Alaska in March.

The commander of his battalion remembered him as “a self-starter, who was always working as hard as he could and motivating those around him,” according to the statement.

Martinez-Arguelles was one of five soldiers in the same vehicle, two of whom were ejected in the crash. He was pronounced dead at the Alaska Native Medical Center. According to the Army, two of the other soldiers remain in stable condition at ANMC, with the other two treated and released from Providence Alaska Medical Center.

All three people from the other vehicle in the crash — a soldier, his wife and child — remain in stable condition at Alaska Regional Hospital.

Army spokesman John Pennell said no further details on the collision, including its cause, were available Wednesday.

Original story:

A soldier was killed and several others were injured Sunday evening in a collision on Anchorage’s Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

The two-vehicle collision happened around 11:30 p.m. Sunday on Arctic Valley Road near Cottonwood Park, according to a statement from the Army’s 11th Airborne Division. Five soldiers were in one vehicle and one soldier, his spouse and child were in the other.

“Two occupants of the first car were ejected in the collision,” Army officials said in the statement.

Those two people and that vehicle’s driver were taken to the Alaska Native Medical Center. One of the ejected soldiers, a member of the 11th Airborne, was declared dead at the hospital, according to Army officials.

Army spokesman John Pennell said investigators were still gathering information about the crash Tuesday. The soldier killed in the wreck has not been named, pending notification of family.

The other two soldiers from the first vehicle were treated and released from Providence Alaska Medical Center with minor injuries. The soldier and his family from the second vehicle were taken to Alaska Regional Hospital for evaluation and treatment.

The collision is under investigation by the Army’s Criminal Investigation Command.