As a rule, staff NCOs don’t OD. Right now, since the there is no other explanation, I’m going to assume an aneurysm, one of those little pranks Nature likes to play.
RIP
Marine Force Recon (MARSOC) are stationed and train in Hawaii. More likely this Marine died from the stresses of specialized training and some sort of hidden physical defect than a drug overdose of any kind.
(The cloudy description of this man’s MOS and reason for his presence on Camp Pendleton leads me to believe he is a Force Recon Marine. The Marines tend not to acknowledge the existence of Spec Ops troops believing that such a descriptor detracts from their image as the world’s largest elite military force.)
This story was posted at NBC yesterday evening, and it says he was discovered Wednesday.
More than 24 hours later is a LONG delay for the family to be notified. There is a time limit for notifying the family, I think it is within 4 hours of the death being discovered. (I'm a bit rusty on the rules, since I have not had a notification training refresher course for a while.)
I certainly hope they've managed to locate the family to do the notification. If there is no current address for any family on record, that, too, is a terribly sad story.
Prayers up for this man and his family.
RIP.