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Army Honor Guard transfers the remains of Spc. Jayson Haven of Aiken, S.C., during a dignified transfer at Charlotte Douglas International Airport on June 12, 2023. Haven was then escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders from Charlotte to Powers Funeral Home in Lugoff, S.C., where he was received by family, friends, veterans and community members. (Turner Horton/U.S. Army National Guard)
WASHINGTON — A soldier who was killed serving at a post in the Middle East last month died in a vehicle wreck that also caused another soldier to suffer a permanent disability, the Army said.
Spc. Jayson Reed Haven was riding in a Humvee at Camp Buehring in Kuwait on May 25 when it overturned, the service said. He died of his injuries.
Haven, 20, was in the Humvee in “support of range operations” when it flipped over. Haven of Aiken, S.C., had been assigned to Camp Buehring, which is a staging post in northern Kuwait for American troops.
Spc. Jayson Reed Haven was riding in a Humvee at Camp Buehring in Kuwait on May 25, 2023, when it overturned, the service said. He died of his injuries. (U.S. Army)
“The specific circumstances of the mishap, including the soldiers’ use of seat belts, mishap sequence and if speed was a contributing factor, are currently unknown,” according to an early Army assessment of the accident called a Preliminary Loss Report.
The Army did not specify what injuries or permanent disability the other soldier suffered in the crash.
The service said at the time of the accident that Haven was supporting Operation Spartan Shield, a military effort to increase security, build partnerships in the Middle East, and promote “regional self-reliance.”
Camp Buehring was established in 2003 to aid in the U.S. military’s war in Iraq. It occasionally also has been used by allied troops from Kuwait, South Korea and Britain.
The Army said an average of nine soldiers are killed each year in government vehicle accidents. The crash in Kuwait was the second government vehicle death of fiscal 2023, the service said. The first occurred in Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania and killed 20-year-old Spc. Mackenzie Shay last October.
Haven’s noncombat death was the second for an American service member in Kuwait in two days. On May 24, Air Force Maj. Stephen Khou died at Camp Arifjan in southeastern Kuwait. Khou, 36, was a cyber operations expert working as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the military’s campaign to fight the Islamic State terrorist group.
