A third service member involved in the accident remains in a serious condition at a local medical facility, the announcement said.
The three service members involved in the crash had been deployed to support the Joint Task Force Southern Border.
Officials said the names of the victims will not be released until their next of kin are notified.
The crash happened at 8:50 am local time in an area adjacent to the Texas state line, just west of the Fort Bliss Army base, where military deportation flights are departing.
Stryker Brigade
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a DOD statement on March 1 that a Stryker brigade combat team and a general support aviation battalion were being sent to the southwestern border to enhance military support in securing the U.S.–Mexico border.
“These forces will arrive in the coming weeks, and their deployment underscores the department’s unwavering dedication to working alongside the Department of Homeland Security to secure our southern border and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of the United States under President Trump’s leadership,” Parnell said.
Fort Bliss
The West Texas Fort Bliss Army installation has been serving as a headquarters where equipment and thousands of troops are currently being dispatched along the border since President Donald Trump issued a presidential memorandum on April 11, authorizing the use of members of the National Guard to seal the border.“The complexity of the current situation requires that our military take a more direct role in securing our southern border than in the recent past,” the memo states.
The memo was written to support Executive Order 14167, which was issued on Jan. 20 and clarified the military’s role in protecting U.S. territorial integrity.
It allows for military control of the Roosevelt Reservation, which is land owned by the federal government along the United States side of the United States-Mexico border in California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Federal Indian reservations are excluded.
