Subscribe

A 47-year-old Navy reservist is the latest member of the U.S. armed forces to die from complications of COVID-19, the coronavirus respiratory disease.

Petty Officer 1st Class William E. Matthews, an electronics technician from Lewisville, Texas, died Nov. 24, according to a Navy Reserve Force news release issued Monday.

Matthews, assigned to Navy Reserve Center Forth Worth, was admitted to Lewisville Medical Hospital on Nov. 6, according to the release.

The Navy did not disclose whether Matthews had been vaccinated against COVID-19. More than 87% of Reserve sailors have been vaccinated as of Nov. 24, according to Navy statistics.

Navy Selected Reserve sailors have until Dec. 28 to be fully vaccinated, meaning they must have their final dose by Dec. 14, the Navy announced in October. More than 95% of active-duty sailors are fully vaccinated, the service said Nov. 15.

Matthews is the fourth Navy reservist to die from COVID-19, USNI News reported Monday. He is the 16th sailor whose death is attributable to the coronavirus, according to USNI and Navy reports.

The first sailor to die of COVID-19 complications, Chief Petty Officer Charles Robert Thacker Jr., 41, was an aviation ordnanceman assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt. Thacker, of Fort Smith, Ark., died in April 2020 in Guam, where the carrier had docked after the virus swept through its crew.

More than 87% of Reserve sailors have been vaccinated as of Nov. 24, 2021, according to Navy statistics.

More than 87% of Reserve sailors have been vaccinated as of Nov. 24, 2021, according to Navy statistics. (Jackson Adkins/U.S. Navy)

author picture
Wyatt Olson is based in the Honolulu bureau, where he has reported on military and security issues in the Indo-Pacific since 2014. He was Stars and Stripes’ roving Pacific reporter from 2011-2013 while based in Tokyo. He was a freelance writer and journalism teacher in China from 2006-2009.

Sign Up for Daily Headlines

Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets from around the world.

Sign Up Now