A young marine on his way home from Camp Pendleton, Calif, died this week after falling from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. He was on a roadtrip and stopped there to do some sightseeing before heading back to his hometown of Derby, Kansas, according to his father. He was 20 years old.
Jeffery Klingsick had spent two years in the Marines and had served in Afghanistan for seven months. He was a scout and rifleman for the Marine's 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance battalion and had just been discharged from the Corps.
According to the Wichita Eagle, an investigator of the Grand Canyon National Park told the family that their son ventured away from a public viewing area on the South Rim on Tuesday. He got too close to the edge and slipped and fell 30 feet to a ledge below.
The 30-foot fall was enough to knock him out and a fellow Marine friend began to climb down to help him. Jeffery Klingsick regained consciousness but he was left dazed and wasn't aware of his surroundings. Upon struggling to get back on his feet, he stumbled over the ledge and fell another 600 feet to his death.
Rather than preparing for a celebratory welcome home party, the family is now in mourning and making preparations for a funeral.
"A lot of friends were waiting to see him -- and family," Jeffery's father Russ Klingsick, said.
His father said that Jeffery Klingsick had made big plans for his return from the Marines. He had taken combat life-saving courses which he wanted to use towards his goal of becoming an emergency medical technician. He planned to return to Derby, find a job, work on getting his EMT certification, join a band and watch a lot of John Wayne movies.
"He had a huge fondness for music," his father said. He already had two bands waiting for him to come home and be their guitar player.
Some of Jeffery Klinsick's interests included hard rock, alternative rock and heavy metal music, horror flicks and John Wayne movies, according to his Facebook page.
"One thing he said he was looking forward to was sitting down and watching a lot of old John Wayne movies with his old man," Russ Klingsick said.
Accidents at the Grand Canyon are not uncommon. Authorities say approximately 600 deaths have occurred there since the 1870s, 78 of which were the result of falls or freak accidents. In February, a 24-year old woman fell to her death at the South Rim as well, as she was hiking. Ioana Hociota had married her husband at the Grand Canyon just eight months before her death.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
