Army Widow Forgives Soldiers After Fort Bliss Training Death

Soldier negligence cited in death of Army captain
Army Times
By Kevin Lilley, Staff writer
September 21, 2015

Less than a day after rejoining his unit in the middle of a training exercise, a 27-year-old officer lay dying in the dark, the victim of what an Army investigator called “the intersection of multiple deficiencies.”

Capt. Jonathan Wynkoop, back with Headquarters and Headquarters Battery, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment, after attending a wedding, had led an advance party from a training area to an assembly area about 30 kilometers away as part of Operation Iron Focus, a 10-day exercise involving more than 6,000 1st Armored Division soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas.

The field artillery officer from Maumee, Ohio, helped set up camp and, around 12:30 the morning of March 31, went to sleep on a cot next to his vehicle.

Four hours and 15 minutes later came disaster. Operating in near-pitch black conditions, with a ground guide using the wrong type of illumination and a driver with the wrong type of license — both soldiers working on about two hours’ sleep — an MATV entered the unit’s unmarked sleeping area. It rolled over Wynkoop as he slept, crushing his chest.
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This is the last photo taken of Capt. Jonathan Wynkoop. It was March 28, a few days before the training accident at Fort Bliss, Texas.
(Photo: Courtesy of Rachel Wynkoop)

Army widow forgives soldiers cited in her husband's death
Army Times
By Kevin Lilley, Staff writer
September 21, 2015

Days after learning Capt. Jonathan Wynkoop had died in a training accident, his family members had a request — they wanted to meet the soldiers involved.

So, on an April Monday at Fort Bliss, Texas, Rachel Wynkoop found herself in a room at her husband’s brigade headquarters, speaking with the driver of the MATV that rolled over the father of three while he slept on a cot next to his vehicle in the early morning hours of March 31.

Rachel Wynkoop wasn’t there to press for answers, to express rage, to impart or release any of the suffering she’d undergone in the six days since her husband’s death.

Instead, the officer’s widow had a simple goal.

“My mission was to help him,” Wynkoop said of the driver, in one of a series of emails to Army Times. “He offered apologies, and I offered forgiveness, and told him that the kids and I would be OK. I also ensured that even though he faces a difficult road ahead, that he would take care of himself in the best manner possible.”
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