NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain — A 23-year-old Seabee on a six-month deployment to Rota died last week from complications stemming from a brain aneurysm, the Navy reported Tuesday.
Construction Electrician Constructionman Mario Gaspar of Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 4, home-ported in Port Hueneme, Calif., was pronounced dead Thursday after emergency surgery at the Cadiz Medical Center in Cadiz, Spain. He had suffered an aneurysm on Jan. 3, according to a Navy release.
Gaspar, a Seabee since 2000, is the fourth Rota-based person to die in a rash of unrelated incidents around the naval port since Jan. 1.
Two sailors died on New Year’s Day. Petty Officer 2nd Class Roland S. Atuwo was killed in a single-car crash near the base, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Dexter C. Orasing fell unconscious on the way to a party and could not be revived. On Jan. 6, the same day Gaspar died, Noelia Ruiz Martinez, a wife of a U.S. servicemember stationed in Rota, succumbed to injuries sustained in a Dec. 30 car crash.
A memorial service for Gaspar is tentatively planned for Saturday, but details had not been set by Tuesday, a Seabee spokeswoman said.
