Fourth Marine recruit dies at Parris Island boot camp in two years

A Marine Corps recruit died earlier this week during a physical fitness test at boot camp in South Carolina, according to the service.

Pfc. Noah Evans, 21, of Decatur, Ga., died Tuesday at Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) Parris Island, the Marine Corps said in a statement on Wednesday.

Evans had been assigned to Mike Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, Recruit Training Regiment. His cause of death is currently under investigation.

The military branch provided no additional details, including whether Evans had any prior medical conditions or the specific events around his death.

He is now the fourth Marine recruit to die at the base in two years, with 10 total deaths since 2000, the Hilton Head Island Packet first reported.

In June 2021, Pfc. Dalton Beals, 19, of Pennsville, N.J., died as a result of extreme overheating during the end of the “The Crucible,” a grueling 54-hour training exercise that caps a 13-week training course at the boot camp.

The event “validates the physical, mental and moral training” endured up to that point by recruits, who are only allowed a limited amount of food and only four to six hours of sleep during the test. The final stage of the training includes a nine-mile hike with 45 pounds of gear.

Beals’s senior drill instructor, Staff Sgt. Steven Smiley, was later charged with negligent homicide for his death in November 2022.

Another recruit, Pvt. Anthony Muñoz, 21, of Lawrence, Mass., died in In September 2021 after falling from a balcony. MCRD Parris Island officials said his death appeared to be a suicide.

And Pfc. Brandon Barnish, 26, of Evans, Ga., was found dead at the base on Sept. 29, 2021.

Parris Island is just one of two locations that provide basic training for the Marines. Male recruits from east of the Mississippi and all female recruits from the entire country are trained there.

The base has come under intense scrutiny in the past decade following allegations that abuse may have contributed to a recruit’s suicide there in 2016.

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