A Marine’s Mysterious Death

Aug. 30, 1988. The searing Mojave Desert. About 2,400 U.S. Marines conduct night maneuvers near the Twentynine Palms Base in California. Among them is Jason Rother, a 19-year-old lance corporal shipped in from North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune for a special training exercise. While most of the Marines directing convoys are posted around the desert in pairs, Rother, inexplicably, is sent out to guide troop movements without an assigned buddy.

Sept. 1. Almost two days after Rother went into the desert, he is reported missing. The Marine Corps launches a 1,758-man search, complete with helicopters and jeeps equipped with infrared thermal imaging devices, to track him down. The searchers find Rother’s helmet, flak jacket and backpack. They also discover an arrow, laid out on the ground with stones and pointing southeast, that Rother may have constructed to indicate the direction in which he was traveling. But after three days, the search party fails to find him. A month later, a second Marine-led search party has no more success in locating the missing Leatherneck.

Dec. 4. More than three months after Rother’s disappearance, a third search party, composed of 130 civilian and Marine volunteers organized by the San Bernardino sheriff’s office, comes across the corporal’s M-16 rifle, camouflage clothes and ID card. Not far away, they soon discover dry human bones, presumably those of Rother, scattered across the desert floor. Struggling for survival in daytime temperatures that reached 120 degrees F, the doughty Marine may have made his way almost back to the base in Twentynine Palms. The remains are found only a heartbreaking two miles away.

In the wake of the accident, Rother’s company commander and platoon leader have been relieved of their commands. Three more of the lance corporal’s superiors face courts-martial for dereliction of duty and other charges. Perhaps the proceedings will answer some of the unsettling questions surrounding the case. Why wasn’t Rother assigned a partner during the nocturnal exercises? Why did almost two days pass before Rother was reported missing? Was the required after-actions roll call performed promptly? How could Rother’s fellow Marines possibly have left him behind? “Accountability for your Marines,” says corps spokesman Lieut. Colonel Fred Peck, “is something that’s drummed into you from Day One.” In the case of the Rother tragedy, it may not have been drummed in quite hard enough.