U.S. Navy Seaman Apprentice Aristan Johnson, seen here as a seaman recruit, poses with his mother in Gurnee, Ill., on Sept. 26, 2024. (Jacqueline Rose/Facebook)
The body of a sailor who was killed over the weekend while serving at a Navy base in Cuba arrived in the U.S. earlier this week, according to the Air Force.
The remains of Seaman Apprentice Aristan Johnson, of Round Rock, Texas, were transferred Tuesday to a Navy carry team at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the Air Force’s mortuary affairs office said on its website.
Johnson, 21, was killed Saturday in a single-vehicle accident at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, civilian base spokesman Derrick Matthews said in an email to Stars and Stripes on Thursday.
The base announced Johnson’s death in a Facebook post on Sunday, saying he “served with honor, pride and a steadfast commitment to protecting others.”
He worked in the Navy’s security forces and enlisted on July 16, the Navy said. In early January, Johnson posted on Facebook that he had moved to Guantanamo Bay.
“There are no words that could ever capture the pain I’m going through, but I know I can’t hide (it) any longer,” wrote Johnson’s mother, Jacqueline Rose, in a post to her Facebook page Monday. “My beautiful son, Aristan Johnson, was taken from us far too soon.”
In February, the U.S. began transferring Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees to Guantanamo after President Donald Trump ordered the base to prepare to hold as many as 30,000 migrants.
By early May, there were just 32 migrants at Guantanamo and U.S. military forces had taken down tents set up on the base to house detainees, The New York Times reported May 5.
Some 497 migrants had been held at Guantanamo Bay for days or a few weeks as ICE used the base to hold small numbers of detainees to be deported as of May, according to the Times report.
Between January and April, U.S. Transportation Command conducted 46 flights on military aircraft to support migrant deportation operations at Guantanamo Bay, Stars and Stripes reported last month.
NS Guantanamo Bay is a remote installation and there is no access to Cuban-controlled territory, Matthews said.
Stars and Stripes reporter Svetlana Shkolnikova contributed to this report.
