San Diego-based Navy officer, 29, dies in training
SAN DIEGO — A San Diego-based explosive ordnance disposal and dive officer died last week during training at a Hawaii Marine Corps base, the Navy said Wednesday.
Lt. j.g. Aaron Fowler became unresponsive during training and was pronounced dead at a hospital, the Navy announced in a statement.
Fowler, 29, had been assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 1 at Naval Base Point Loma.
“Our deepest sympathies go out to Aaron’s family and friends, and we join them in remembering and mourning this brave warrior,” Rear Adm. Joseph Diguardo Jr., the commander of Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, said in a statement. “His decision to join this elite special operations community was a testament to the dedicated and selfless character he embodied, and his legacy will endure in our ranks through those he inspired by his service.”
Details about the type of training Fowler was engaged in when he became unresponsive were not immediately available last week.
However, Lt. Cmdr. David Carter, a Navy Expeditionary Combat Command spokesperson, said Fowler was in the third phase of the Marine Corps’ Reconnaissance Leaders Course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
“The Marine Corps offers its deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Aaron Fowler, who died while participating in the final phase of the Marine Corps Reconnaissance Leaders Course at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kanehoe Bay,” Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Phillip Parker said in a statement provided to the San Diego UnionTribune.
“Investigations into the circumstances and cause of death are currently under way,” the statement added.
The Reconnaissance Leaders Course lasts eight weeks and teaches planning, briefing and leading teams in patrolling, ground reconnaissance and amphibious operations, according to Parker.
During the course, trainees spend time at Camp Pendleton and the Yuma, Ariz., Marine Corps Air Station before completing the final three weeks in Hawaii, according to the Marine Corps’ website. In Hawaii, trainees learn clandestine amphibious and jungle operations.
Parker did not immediately respond to questions about which training was underway last week.
Fowler was from Oklahoma and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 2018, according to his Navy service biography. He attended graduate school at Georgetown University before entering the Navy’s dive and explosive ordnance disposal schools in 2020. He reported to his San Diego unit in November.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is investigating Fowler’s death, the Navy said.
Fowler’s death is the second this year of a San Diegobased Navy special operations trainee.
In February, Seaman Kyle Mullen, 24, died immediately after completing Navy SEAL training’s notorious “Hell Week” at Naval Base Coronado.
Mullen’s death is still under investigation, according to Lt. Cmdr. Kara Handley, a Naval Special Warfare spokesperson in Coronado.