Texas guardsman dies while on border mission
A Texas National Guard soldier from San Antonio has died while supporting Gov. Greg Abbott’s border mission, Operation Lone Star, military officials said.
Sgt. Alex Rios Rodriguez, 52, died Thursday in what the Texas Guard called “a non-mission-related incident” at his quarters in McAllen. The guard said “he suffered a medical emergency at the unit’s hotel and was unable to be revived by emergency personnel.”
Rodriguez was a team leader for the 36th Infantry Division’s Delta Company, 536th Brigade Support Battalion, 72nd Brigade Combat Team. The Guard provided no details about his service history or his family.
The Texas Guard is investigating his death.
Rodriguez is the latest Texas guardsman to die while carrying out Abbott’s controversial border mission. Spc. Bishop Evans, 22, of Arlington, died April 22 after trying to rescue a migrant crossing the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass.
In a news release, Air Force Maj. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, the operation’s commander, offered condolences to Rodriguez’s family, saying, “Our thoughts and prayers are with them at this difficult time.”
The Texas Guard did not immediately respond to a query from the San Antonio Express-News late Friday, but the paper has tracked six casualties so far connected with Operation Lone Star.
Before the deaths of Rodriguez and Evans, four guardsmen committed suicide.
The state-run border operation has been unprecedented in size and scope.
Operation Lone Star has placed 6,128 guardsmen on the border, with an additional 3,700 elsewhere, making it the organization’s largest mission in decades. The state also has assigned 1,600 Department of Public Safety troopers to the border. There is no fixed date for withdrawal.
There are about 20,600 soldiers and airmen in the Texas Guard.
Until last year, when Operation Lone Star began, the Texas Guard border missions had a relatively small footprint. Then-Gov. Rick Perry ordered one mission in 2014, dispatching 1,000 troops to be “the tip of the spear in protecting Americans from these cartels and gangs.”
Like Perry, Abbott has repeatedly invoked troubles along the border in highly partisan rhetoric aimed directly at Democratic presidents. But the operation has proved costly, requiring hundreds of millions in state funding to maintain the heavy presence. It also has resulted in morale problems among troops who’ve endured everything from pay shortages to hardships tied to their service.
As the operation continues, the Texas Guard is still emerging from a leadership shakeup. Its first female commander, Army Maj. Gen. Tracy Norris, abruptly resigned Feb. 14, replaced by Suelzer.
Two other high-level guard officials left as well. Maj. Gen. Charles Aris, who had led the 36th Infantry Division for less than five months, was replaced by Brig. Gen. Ronald “Win” Burkett II. The civilian chief of staff for Norris, retired Maj. Gen. James “Red” Brown, resigned after Abbott announced her exit.
A new public affairs team is also now in place.