Soldier killed, 3 others hurt in training exercise at CFB Wainwright

Soldier killed in training accident served two tours in Afghanistan

JURIS GRANEY

Published on: April 26, 2017

Wainwright — A two-tour Canadian Forces veteran of the war in Afghanistan killed at an Alberta military base is being remembered as a “meticulous professional” with an infectious laugh.

Sgt. Robert J. Dynerowicz died in a single-vehicle crash at CFB Wainwright on Tuesday morning when the light armoured vehicle he was commanding crashed while travelling on a heavily travelled gravel road on the base.

Three other soldiers were injured.

This is not the first time a LAV-III has been involved in a fatal crash. An Ottawa Citizen report in 2014 catalogued 14 rollover incidents since the vehicle was introduced into the Canadian Forces in 1999 with at least eight military personnel killed in that time frame.


Col. Conrad Mialkowski, commander of 2 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, defended the track record of the vehicle during a Wednesday news conference on the base, saying he had used the same model for eight months in Afghanistan.

“I’m certainly confident these vehicles are safe for use,” he said. “It is a very reliable vehicle that has been the workhorse of the army for close to two decades. It is a safe operating vehicle.”

Mialkowski said Dynerowicz, an armoured crewman of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, was commanding a LAV-III at the conclusion of a series of drills as part of the 2-1/2-month Rugged Bear exercise in Alberta.

He was being followed by another armoured vehicle when the crash happened.

Not part of a tactical movement

Mialkowski said the accident “was not part of a tactical movement.”

“At this time, we don’t understand fully what occurred,” he said.


Sgt. Robert J. Dynerowicz, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based at CFB Petawawa, was killed in a single-vehicle crash Tuesday.

Dynerowicz, who joined the Canadian Forces in 2005, was taken to hospital in Wainwright, where he was pronounced dead.

Two members of the vehicle were taken to the brigade medical station at the training area. Another was evacuated to Edmonton for observation.

Mialkowski said it was snowing at the time and that could have been a factor.

The investigation by the Canadian Armed Forces National Investigation Service will also look at the condition of the vehicle.

Mialkowski said a short field memorial was held in honour of Dynerowicz and was “attended by every member of the brigade including those soldiers returned to the unit after the accident.

“It’s a hard time for those of us in uniform and even harder for those within his family,” Mialkowski said.

“They remain in our hearts and prayers.”

Mialkowski said friends and close colleagues of Dynerowicz — who was known as “Dino” to his friends — are in “mourning, which would be expected.”

“However, for a soldier, although unexpected and certainly not anticipated, it’s not the first time we have suffered losses and that is true of the friends and colleagues of Sgt. Dynerowicz, many of whom are not only veterans of Afghanistan but veterans of other operations of the Canadian Army,” he said.

“Because he was so gregarious and a well-humoured fellow, he will be truly missed by his friends.”

The Rugged Bear military exercise will continue Thursday and is due to conclude at the end of May or in early June.


Sgt. Robert J. Dynerowicz was travelling in a LAV-III Bison on a heavily travelled gravel road at CFB Wainwright when he was killed Tuesday.

http://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/cfb-wainwright-to-hold-news-conference-on-training-death

A Canadian soldier has been killed and three others hurt during a training exercise Tuesday in Wainwright, Alta.

Sgt. Robert "Bobby" J. Dynerowicz from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, based at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, died following an accident involving their light armoured vehicle at CFB Wainwright around 8 a.m. MT.

"Two of the soldiers have been treated and they're back with their units here in Wainwright," base spokesperson Lt. Tony Wright told CBC Edmonton Tuesday. "One other soldier is still in hospital."

All four soldiers are from CFB Petawawa.

The cause of the accident has not yet been determined.

"It's still under investigation at the moment," Wright said. "We have Canadian Forces Military Police and our national investigative service, they're doing a forensic investigation of the accident so we can't really come to any conclusions about how this came to be."

'Death a painful loss'

Lt.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk, Commander of the Canadian Army, expressed sorrow over Dynerowicz's death.

"Not only is his death a painful loss to his family and friends, but we feel this loss across the Canadian Army and the entire military community," he said in a news release.

The accident happened during an exercise named Rugged Bear, a live-fire training event involving 3,000 soldiers as part of the army's Road to High Readiness training program.

The exercise began on April 15 and continues until Thursday.

"Any loss is a devastating one to the people here so we're just taking a pause, getting our heads wrapped around it and then we're going to carry on with the work we're doing here," Wright said.

"Right now we're planning a parade just for the units here who are affected. We're going to have it here on the base in the coming days."

The death at the training base 200 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, is the first since November 2014 when Pte. Steven Allen of Victoria, B.C. was killed after a lookout tower he was in collapsed.

In May 2014, Lt.-Col. Dan Bobbitt was killed at the base when the light armoured vehicle he was in rolled over during training manoeuvres. Four other soldiers were hurt in the same accident.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/edmonton/soldier-killed-3-others-hurt-in-training-exercise-at-cfb-wainwright-1.4085771


Rest in Peace brother.