NCIS report finds young Marine was crushed by bulldozer

NCIS: Marine crushed by bulldozer as he slept in foxhole
Pfc. Casey James Holmes killed in March during training at Twentynine Palms base
Marine Corps Times
By Denise Goolsby
The Desert Sun
Jan. 10, 2014

TWENTYNINE PALMS — A Marine killed in March during a training mishap at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center, Twentynine Palms was crushed by a bulldozer as he slept in a shallow, hand-dug foxhole, a report by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service said.

Pfc. Casey James Holmes, a Chico native who was 20 at the time of his death, was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment from Marine Corps Base Hawaii. He was at the combat center to participate in the Marine Corps’ nearly monthlong Integrated Training Exercise, known as ITX.

The Chico Enterprise-Record recently obtained the NCIS report after filing three Freedom of Information Act requests with the agency. The first two were rejected with NCIS saying the investigation was still underway and nothing could be released, staff writer Roger H. Aylworth reports.

The Enterprise-Record shared the 126-page NCIS report with The Desert Sun. The names of all of those interviewed in the course of the investigation had been redacted.
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