US Soldier Is Mauled To Death By Bear On Alaskan Base

The soldier who was killed by a bear Tuesday afternoon at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was setting a course through the woods for navigation training at the time of the attack, according to the U.S. Army Alaska.

The soldier was part of a group of three scouting the area west of the Anchorage Regional Landfill. Investigators determined a sow with two cubs attacked the group, said Alaska Wildlife Trooper Capt. Derek DeGraaf. A den was found nearby, he said.

“We don’t know if it was an original den, or the sow had moved and just stashed the bears there — we don’t know, but it was clearly a dugout in the ground,” he said.

The New York Times reported the soldiers’ arrival prompted the sow to crawl out of the den, knock down one soldier and attack a second. The soldier knocked down was taken to the hospital with minor injuries and released, according to the newspaper.

The soldier killed was identified by the U.S. Army Alaska on Thursday as 30-year-old Staff Sgt. Seth Michael Plant, an infantryman from the 3rd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Plant, from Florida, joined the active-duty Army in January 2015 and served in Georgia and North Carolina before arriving to JBER in July 2021.