4 Marines Charged in Death of Instructor
Four Marines at the recruit training center have been charged in the drowning death of a drill instructor in August, the Marine Corps announced Friday.
Brig. Gen. John Paxton Jr., commanding general of the Marine Recruit Depot, filed charges against the four after a preliminary investigation into the death of Staff Sgt. Andrew Gonzales, 30, of Brazoria, Texas. Gonzales was one of 12 drill instructors taking an advanced swimming course when he collapsed.
Capt. Vincent Guida and Staff Sgt. Duane Dishon were charged with dereliction of duty. Staff Sgt. David Roughan and Staff Sgt. Fernando Galvin were charged with dereliction of duty, manslaughter and negligent homicide.
The case will go to an Article 32 hearing, in which a hearing officer will take testimony from witnesses and hear arguments from military prosecutors and defense attorneys. The officer will then make a recommendation to the commanding general about whether the case should proceed to a court martial, be dropped or handled administratively.
The four accused are still at the recruit depot but no longer involved with swimming instruction, said Maj. Joseph Kloppel, a base spokesman.
Kloppel said the incident did not involve recruit training and that no recruits were in the pool when Gonzales collapsed. He was training for a water survival course at the Navy base in Coronado.
Although Kloppel declined to discuss specifics of the case, the charges against Guida and Dishon suggest they had supervisorial responsibility for swimming instruction but were not present during the incident and that Roughan and Galvin were present.
Although this case does not involve recruits, swimming instruction is a major part of training.
Each recruit gets five days of instruction, and for many it is the most difficult part of the grueling 12-week regimen.
This week a swimming instructor at the recruit depot at Parris Island, S.C., pleaded not guilty in the drowning death of a 19-year-old recruit. The instructor’s court martial is set to begin next month.