Posted on 02/12/2026 11:54:52 PM PST by BenLurkin
A US Marine who fell overboard from an attack ship in the Caribbean has become the first known American casualty in the Trump administration's operation targeting drug-trafficking boats.
Lance Cpl Chukwuemeka E. Oforah, 21, fell from the USS Iwo Jima on 7 February and was lost at sea. He was pronounced dead after a lengthy search, which ended 10 February.
The Florida native was assisting Operation Southern Spear, which has carried out 38 lethal strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean since September. It played a key role in the capture of Venezuelan president Nicholas Maduro.
A statement from the US Marines contained no details regarding how he may have fallen from the ship.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Sad but it happens. It’s a dangerous job, even just training. During my military career I remember the bi-annual REFORGER (Return of Forces to Germany) where massive troops along with tanks, personnel carriers, and other equipment was airlifted to Germany and for two weeks was deployed all over Germany in war games. The number of troops killed each exercise ran between 10 to 20 from all kinds of accidents. Troops got run over by tanks for sleeping out in the open, troop would die by electrocution when forgetting to pull down their vehicles whip antenna when traveling under electric cables for electric trains. A number of Germans would also die and I recall when a German in a Mercedes doing about 180 mph on the Autobahn hit the rear of a tank column.
I have a friend who drove M-60’s during some of those reforger ops. He said his unit had a public relations officer whose sole job was to hand out money for stuff the tanks broke or damaged. A friend of his took a turn too tightly and trashed the front of a bakery.
CC
My company spent the month of October, 1966 on that ship.
We finally disembarked at the end of the month and took up our position at the Rockpile.
Wow. Serious_
Yes. I have read of property owners being compensated for bark removed from trees.
Different USS Iwo Jima. The ship in the article, LHD-7, was commissioned in 2001. I was on her during workups in 2002. She was our “big deck” on the 26th MEU in ‘03.
Praying for my Marine brother and his family.
RIP and Semper Fi
.
Roger that. I was thinking about an LPH.
RIP.
But how do you fall off an assault ship?
During the 8 years of the Reagan presidency we averaged 2200 military deaths a year.
What was a marine doing topside?
Yep, I was a pill roller attached to an artillery outfit in Germany in the early 60's and we had multiple deaths caused by training accidents {overshoots, failure to remove barrel plugs prior to firing, getting run over by vehicles, and just plain stupid and careless actions of young men in warlike settings}.
War is hell but so is war training when using live ammo {which was a regular practice back then}.
The tankers and the arty guys all used live ammo when out for training purposes.
We don’t lock them in.
He was not killed. It is just part of going to sea on a Navy ship. I am secretary/treasurer of my ship association, and few shipmates can’t relate a story about someone dying in an accident.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.