Two junior enlisted Georgia National Guardsmen died Wednesday in Iraq, the Army announced Friday.
Spc. Travis Pameni, 23, and Spc. Owen Elliot, 23, both died in noncombat-related incidents, according to Army officials.
"Both of these soldiers selflessly served our state and nation," Maj. Gen. Dwayne Wilson, the adjutant general of the Georgia National Guard, said in a statement. "We extend our prayers and deepest sympathies to the families and loved ones of both soldiers."
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Elliot was a native of Twin City, Georgia, and was assigned to 1st Battalion, 118th Field Artillery Regiment, which is headquartered in Savannah, Georgia.
Pameni, of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was assigned to 1st Battalion, 121st Infantry Regiment, based out of Winder, Georgia.
The soldiers died in separate incidents in Baghdad, where the U.S. military still has a significant troop presence, according to a Pentagon official with direct knowledge of the situation. The area has been under a looming threat of drone, missile and rocket attacks, largely from Iran-backed militias.
Maj. William Carraway, a spokesperson for the Georgia National Guard, declined to comment on how the two Guardsmen died, saying only that the incidents weren't combat-related.
The deaths come a week after Iraqi officials joined American military leaders at the Pentagon to discuss the continued U.S. presence in Iraq as part of efforts to fight the Islamic State group.
At the conclusion of that meeting, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that the U.S. remained "committed" to Iraq's "sovereignty, security and stability" without directly addressing reported calls from Iraqi officials for U.S. troops to leave the country by 2025.
The overwhelming majority of deaths in the military are not related to combat, even during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Between 2006 and 2021, 19,000 troops died while in service, 32% of whom died in accidents, which can include botched training exercises, vehicle crashes and various industrial incidents, according to federal data. Only 14% of the deaths were combat related. Deaths related to accidents have been on a steady decline, though that drop broadly mirrors reductions in the number of troops in combat.
In January, three other Georgia-based soldiers were killed in an Iranian-based militia drone attack in Jordan. Staff Sgt. William Rivers, 46; Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, 24; and Sgt. Breonna Moffett, 23, were assigned to the 718th Engineer Company, an Army Reserve unit based out of Fort Moore, Georgia.
Much of the Georgia National Guard has been deployed to Iraq, Kosovo and Poland in recent months. Some units in the state have also recently been involved in short-term training missions abroad, including the 170th Cyber Protection Team in Morocco, and the 214th Field Artillery Battalion in Sweden.
At any given time, some 20,000 Guardsmen are deployed abroad, according to data from the National Guard Bureau, with states having different levels of commitment to those missions overseas, particularly in Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Many states also have units serving in numerous domestic missions, particularly natural disasters such as the ongoing wildfires across the country.
