MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Fort Campbell officials have identified the body of a soldier found Thursday, September 8 in the Cumberland River in Montgomery County.
Col. Martin O’Donnell with Fort Campbell Public Affairs identified the soldier as Sgt. Ryan A. Estridge, 26, an infantryman with 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), from Danbury, Wisconsin.
Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency Director Jerry Buchannan said the body was found a short distance upriver from Lock C.
Buchannan said had not spoken with the two men who found the body but it was his understanding that they were the father and brother of the missing man.
Emergency personnel had been searching for the missing soldier since he disappeared on the night of September 1 in the Red River after an altercation with another man in a parking lot on North Riverside Drive.
According to witnesses, security guards had broken up a fight between two men. One of the men, identified as the missing soldier, reportedly fought with the security guards and somehow entered the fast-moving water of the Red River. Authorities aren’t sure whether the man jumped into the river or fell.
Rescue personnel with Clarksville Fire Rescue, Montgomery County Emergency Medical Services, and Emergency Management Agency (EMA), continued their search over the weekend but did not find any sign of the missing man at the time.