June 23 (UPI) — Authorities are investigating the death of an Alabama Army Reserve soldier who was found dead two days after he went missing in a training exercise in Florida.
Officials found Specialist Calyn McLemore dead Friday night in a wooded area of Camp Blanding, the Clay County Sheriff’s Office reported Friday night on its Facebook page.
“This now becomes an undetermined death investigation,” it said.
A Florida National Guard release shows that McLemore went missing in north Florida on Wednesday “when he was taking part in a land navigation course.”
Sheriff’s spokesman Keith Smith said in a news conference McLemore was “training for the last month, a basic leadership course, and part of that course is where they have to go out and have to do a land navigation assignment, and he did not return at 11 o’clock on Wednesday at the rally point.”
Smith told Al.com that “extremely tough conditions,” including the extreme heat, may have contributed to McLemore’s disappearance and death.
The soldier had some maps and grid areas from the navigation course, but terrain conditions including “the mud, the woods, the snakes” and heat made the search difficult, Smith said.
Authorities don’t think he was trying to go AWOL, nor do they consider the incident suspicious.
The sheriff’s office said Friday it could not release further details, citing an active investigation.
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