U.S. Soldier, 29, Killed During Early-Morning Training Exercise

A young U.S. soldier was killed in a horrifying training accident after he was run over by a massive armored fighting vehicle in the California desert, Army officials said.

Adrian Bonsey, 29, a combat engineer assigned to the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Stewart in Georgia, died earlier this month during a large-scale military exercise at the National Training Center in the Mojave Desert.

According to the Army, Bonsey was on foot in a training area on June 10 during hours of limited visibility when he was struck and run over by an M2 Bradley fighting vehicle around 4:30 a.m.

The Bradley is no ordinary military vehicle. The heavily armed combat machine weighs roughly 27 tons and is designed to carry troops into battle while providing fire support with a 25mm chain gun, a 7.62mm machine gun and anti-tank missiles.

The deadly incident remains under investigation.

“This is a devastating loss for our entire division,” Maj. Gen. John Lubas, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, said in a statement. “Adrian was an exceptional soldier who was committed to our mission and proudly serving our nation. We are heartbroken and will wrap our arms around his family, loved ones and fellow Soldiers during this difficult time.”

Bonsey, a New York native, joined the Army in 2023 and had only been stationed at Fort Stewart for about two months, officials said. Before that, he served at Fort Carson in Colorado and deployed to Poland in 2024.

He was taking part in a major training rotation at the National Training Center, one of the Army’s most intense combat training locations. Units typically spend about a month there, carrying out large-scale exercises meant to simulate real battlefield conditions before they are cleared for potential overseas deployments.

The fatal accident has renewed attention on the dangers troops face even before they ever reach a war zone.

The Army lost 31 soldiers in training accidents in 2025, according to Army figures cited by ABC News. Those deaths were split between aircraft crashes and ground incidents, with many of the ground fatalities involving military vehicles.

Military vehicle accidents have long been a deadly problem for the service. Since 2020, the Army has averaged about two vehicle-related deaths per month, though those numbers have reportedly declined from the mid-2000s, when training fatalities surged during the height of the Iraq War buildup.

Past Army investigations into fatal training accidents have pointed to several recurring risks, including sleep deprivation, inadequate training and inexperienced leaders overseeing dangerous exercises.

For Bonsey’s family, friends and fellow soldiers, the investigation may eventually explain what went wrong in the dark hours of June 10. But for now, the Army is mourning the loss of a young soldier whose service ended in a tragic accident on American soil.