Thursday, October 09, 2008

Memorial held for Soldier found dead in Fort Belvoir barracks room

Family and friends gathered at Woodlawn Chapel Wednesday to honor a 28-year old NCO who was found dead in his barracks room on Fort Belvoir.

According to reports, Fort Belvoir Fire and Emergency personnel were called to the barracks at around 2 p.m. Saturday and found Sgt. Lukas T. Stanford dead in his room.

Stanford was a combat engineer with the 911th Technical and Rescue Engineer Company, 12th Aviation Battalion, Air Operations Group. He was assigned to the company in June 2007.

“Sgt. Stanford was a great Soldier and an outstanding American who surpassed expectations within the 911th Technical and Rescue Engineer Company, an elite organization with very high standards,” said Col. Jeryl Ludowese, AOG commander. “The Air Operations Group and the entire Army family deeply mourn the tragic loss of our comrade, Sgt. Stanford, and extend our most sincere condolences to his family and friends.”

AOG is a Military District of Washington organization which has personnel and equipment located on Belvoir’s Davison Army Airfield.

Stanford’s death is under investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.

“At this point in the investigation, we do not suspect foul play, but have not completely ruled it out in order to conduct a complete and thorough investigation,”
said CID spokesperson, Chris Grey.