A 19-year-old airman who was killed in a Humvee rollover during a 2023 convoy back to F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming was not wearing a seat belt and the driver was going over the recommended speed, according to an investigation report.
Airman Trinity Reinhart, an Oregon native who had been assigned to F.E. Warren just shy of four months, was riding as a passenger in the second vehicle of a two-vehicle convoy on Sept. 16, 2023, after working security for maintainers at a missile facility near Grover, Colorado, the Ground Accident Investigation Board report released earlier this month detailed.
While driving 45 miles per hour down an unpaved road that evening, the driver of the Humvee lost control and the vehicle began sliding off the road and turning, ultimately causing the Humvee to flip into a ditch, killing Reinhart, the report detailed. The driver was treated for minor injuries.
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"As the vehicle rolled, both front doors opened. Reinhart, who was not wearing her seat belt, was ejected and sustained fatal injuries," a news release from Air Force Global Strike Command said.
Following Reinhart's death, two other Humvee-related fatalities happened at America's nuclear missile bases, which prompted immediate reviews. In new details, an official with the 20th Air Force, the numbered combatant command that oversees intercontinental ballistic missiles at bases and sites in the U.S., revealed to Military.com on Friday that regular use of the Humvees was halted under a policy in place over the last year.
"20th Air Force personnel were directed to halt day-to-day use of Up-Armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (UA-HMMWVs) in July 2024," Capt. Jackie Noffsinger, a 20th Air Force spokesperson, said in an emailed statement. "This policy was implemented to mitigate risk to our airmen while maintaining safe, secure and reliable nuclear security operations."
Humvees had been used by airmen at the nation's nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile bases to travel, patrol and transport individuals to remote missile facilities dotted across the often cold, rocky and treacherous American great plains states of Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming.
The publicly released investigation into Reinhart's death does not provide an opinion as to what caused the incident.
One detail in the report said that the operator of the Humvee "was taught not to operate a government vehicle faster than 25 mph" on gravel roads and that the driver "was not trained" using that particular type of Humvee "during Skid Car training or gravel road training."
The Humvees are now not being used for on- or off-base convoys but can be used in pressing circumstances or emergencies. Military.com first reported in January 2024 that the 20th Air Force was reexamining the way it trains with Humvees, with an official saying at the time it was "a deliberate pause coupled with a reassessment of training, certification and employment."
That review followed Reinhart's death in September 2023 as well as the October 2023 death of Airman Alton John, a 19-year-old Security Forces member at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.
A Montana Highway Patrol report publicized by local media outlets at the time said that the Humvee John was in attempted a downhill right-hand curve "at an excessive rate of speed for the vehicle," adding that it crossed into the other lane, spun and then left the road, where it rolled "multiple times,” Military.com previously reported. John died six days later, on Nov. 1.
Findings and recommendations of an internal Safety Investigation Board report into both incidents were not made public, officials told Military.com in January 2024.
The July 2024 policy halting day-to-day Humvee usage followed the death of another airman at Malmstrom.
Staff Sgt. Jorge Delgado, 37, was killed while traveling to his duty location in a Humvee on June 29, 2024. Three airmen in the vehicle with Delgado were injured, and two first responder airmen were harmed, Military.com previously reported.
Noffsinger told Military.com that there is more usage of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle "as additional vehicles arrive and personnel become certified to operate the vehicles." The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center began working to replace Humvees with the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle more than five years ago, according to a 2020 news release.
"These efforts strengthen our ability to meet operational demands with improved safety," Noffsinger said, adding that Reinhart’s death is “deeply felt across 20 AF, and we are committed to learning from this incident and ensuring effective mitigations are in place to prevent future tragedies."
