U.S. Soldier Injured in Gaza Aid Pier Accident Has Died

 

One of the soldiers who was injured in a mishap on the Gaza emergency sealift operation earlier this year has died of his wounds, the U.S. Army has confirmed. 

Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, 23, was one of three soldiers who were injured in an accident on May 23. The other two soldiers received minor injuries and returned to duty after a checkup. Stanley was badly injured, and he was taken to a hospital in Israel for treatment. In June, he was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center; he did not recover, and on October 25, the Army medically retired him due to his injuries. He died six days later. 

"Sgt. Quandarius Stanley was an instrumental and well respected first line leader in the 7th Transportation Brigade Expeditionary, especially during the mission to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Gaza," brigade commander Col. John "Eddie' Gray told Army Times in a statement. "Our entire unit mourns alongside his family."

Stanley and his unit were deployed in support of a Joint Logistics Over the Shore (JLOTS) operation, an expeditionary sealift capability that provides a connection between deep-draft cargo ships and an unimproved beachhead. The largest and most visible elements of the system are a floating receiving barge that can "berth" a ro/ro ship - known as a roll-on/roll-off discharge facility, or RRDF - and a floating pier structure anchored to shore. 

The mission was designed to provide emergency food relief to northern Gaza, where civilians were largely cut off from terrestrial aid supplies due to border control policies. After a multi-month effort to transport pontoon barges and other gear from Virginia to Israel, a joint Army-Navy team assembled the floating pier structure and affixed it to shore for the first time on May 17. On May 23, Stanley was critically injured while he was working aboard the RRDF, according to USNI News. The nature of the accident was not disclosed, but it was not related to enemy action. 

JLOTS is a complex system designed to provide heavy military logistics in areas without port improvements; however, it is not designed for operation in open-ocean conditions. Its service window is restricted to Sea State 3 and below, ruling out even moderate swells. The pier was installed on an unprotected beachhead, and was damaged by poor weather in late May. It had to be removed and repaired on multiple occasions, delaying cargo deliveries. On July 10, after just 23 days of active operation and 8,100 tonnes of aid delivery - one-tenth of one Panamax bulker - the Pentagon suspended the mission.  

After heavy congressional criticism of the project, the Inspectors General of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Agency for International Development both launched independent investigations to review its performance.