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When U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert A. Massarelli, 32, died in Kandahar, Afghanistan, last year on June 24, initial reports said that it was the result of a truck he was riding in being hit by an improvised explosive device.
That has turned out not to be the case, according to his parents Pat and Mary Massarelli of Hamilton.
The Army released the official results of their investigation in December, his parents said.
“The first thing everybody said is that it was an IED,” Mary Massarelli said.
They later started hearing a lot of different stories and rumors, and so Mary Massarelli wanted to set the record straight that her son’s death was not the result of an IED, but an accident involving two convoys traveling in opposite directions.
The official “facts and findings” released by the Army report that at approximately 4:37 a.m. local time near Kandahar Airfield, Staff Sgt. Massarelli’s convoy passed a fuel truck convoy driven by Afghani nationals travelling from the opposite direction. He was riding in the passenger seat of the fourth vehicle in the convoy with Sgt. Michael Strachota of Pine Bluff, Ark., driving.
As the last fuel vehicle was coming to pass, it came across the centerline of the road striking the vehicle directly front of Massarelli’s vehicle. The impact ripped open the Afghani fuel tank, spraying fuel into the roadway.
The impact caused the Afghani’s vehicle to break apart and the cab crashed into Massarelli’s vehicle.
“Our boys attempted to avoid the impending crash but their efforts were unsuccessful,” Mary Massarelli said. “Their vehicle went into a ditch and exploded into a fireball that burned for about three hours.”
The Afghani driver and passenger were both killed on impact, and the cab of their fuel truck was entangled between the cab and trailer of Massarelli’s vehicle.
The convoy commander immediately dismounted his vehicle and tried to rescue the soldiers, but the flames were too intense and he saw no motion inside the cab.
The commander alerted Afghani authorities, but the fire suppression team did not arrive on the scene until 6:51 a.m., over two hours after the accident. It took another thirty minutes to get the fire extinguished to recover the soldiers’ remains.
At the time, Mary Massarelli said, some of the soldiers had said that it was an IED, but the Army has ruled that out, labeling the incident as an accident. Some had reported that the on-coming vehicle was swerving, and given the early hour, no one knows if he had fallen asleep.
“Many people have come forward saying this could have been a terrorist or suicide bomber attack of some kind, however after the presentation given by the Army, there was not enough evidence to rule that as a cause,” she said. “We will never know for sure what the intent of the driver (of the on-coming vehicle) was, but without explosive devices or weapons of any kind recovered, it seems to strongly support the accident ruling.”
Mary Massarelli said that they don’t believe that the Army was trying to hide anything when it first reported an IED, but that they were just trying to be thorough in their investigation.
The Massarellis said that they have been extremely touched by all of the tributes, from the naming of a highway to naming of the flagpole at the school where she works and everything in between, that have helped fill “the big vast hole of grief” that the loss of their son created.
“He was a young man who believed in what he was doing,” Pat Massarelli said. “He didn’t think he was doing anything special, just doing his job.”
“The community needs to know that the support they’ve given to us and other fallen soldiers is amazing and appreciated,” Mary Massarelli said. “There are days I don’t want to get out of bed, but your support keeps me moving.”
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