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Stryker Soldier Dies in Rafting Accident

Jun- 6-2009 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

The News Tribune confirms the death of PFC Robert Lang Wheatley, Jr., a soldier with the 4/2 SBCT, in a rafting incident on the Nisqually river. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. Excerpt:

FORT LEWIS, Wash. - The body of Private First Class Robert Lang Wheatley, Jr., of Arcadia, Calif., was recovered from the Nisqually River June 2 by members of Thurston County's dive team. [...]

Pfc. Wheatley was assigned to Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 12th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Lewis, Wash.

On May 17, Pfc. Wheatley and eight other soldiers and one child were on a white water rafting trip on the Nisqually River, in Thurston County, when the three rafts were caught in a fast river current and hit logs jammed in the river. All three rafts were capsized; everyone made it to the river embankment except Pfc. Wheatley.


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