SOLDIER DIES IN ACCIDENT; AREA GUARDSMAN KILLED IN PANAMA

SIKESTON -- A Missouri National Guard combat engineer from Sikeston, who was helping with a road building exercise in Panama, died Saturday after his backhoe overturned.

The accident killed Spec. Jerry L. Thomas, 25, the Missouri National Guard reported Sunday from Jefferson City. The National Guard said the accident happened in central Panama.

Thomas was a member of Company C of the 1140th Engineer Battalion, Sikeston. He is the first Missouri guardsman killed in Central America since the guard began training in large numbers there in 1985, said Maj. Ken MacNevin, a National Guard spokesperson in Jefferson City.

MacNevin said three other guardsmen from around the country had died in the region over the last five years.

Thomas' first day of duty for the Panama exercise, an annual training action, was Dec. 28. Command Sgt. Maj. Paul Summers of the National Guard's 135th Combat Engineer Group in Cape Girardeau said Thomas had gone to Panama to help establish a base camp for other guardsmen. The 1140th Engineer Battalion's headquarters is located at Cape Girardeau.

Summers notified Thomas' family Sunday of his death. They took it hard, he said.

"When you lose a husband or a son, that's kind of tough," said Summers.

Reporting in a dispatch from Fort Clayton, Panama, the National Guard said Thomas was injured when his Army engineer backhoe reportedly went off a road during a vehicle convoy and rolled over. The accident occurred Saturday afternoon near Colon, Panama, it said.

MacNevin put the accident site as being east of where the Panama Canal terminates at the Caribbean Sea. "It's a very isolated rural area: gently rolling hills coming down to flat lands near the seacoast," he said.

Thomas was evacuated to Gorgas Medical Hospital about 2 p.m. (CST) and pronounced dead approximately two hours later, said the National Guard.

The dispatch said the cause of the accident is unknown and is being investigated. No other details were given and MacNevin said he had no additional information.

Last Friday more than 150 National Guard soldiers with the 1140th Engineer Battalion in both Cape Girardeau and Sikeston left for Panama for the road building exercise. Over the next six months, they and other Missouri guardsmen will be rotated in and out of the country.

MacNevin said more than 150,000 National Guard soldiers from around the country have trained overseas within the last decade. Twenty to 25 percent of that training has taken place in Central America.

Overall, he said, the training in Central America has been carried out with few accidents or serious injuries. But speaking of Thomas he added: "That doesn't make you any happier about this accident."

Thomas, who was born in Lilbourn, joined the Missouri National Guard in 1983, MacNevin said. He had served with the guard since that time, except for a brief period in 1985 when he transferred to a similar unit with the Texas National Guard, said MacNevin.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Richards Funeral Home in New Madrid, said Summers. He said Sunday that the exact date and time of the service had not been established.

Thomas leaves behind a wife, LaVern, and a 3-year-old daughter, Summers said.