Family remembering Upstate soldier killed during training exercise

Elise Devlin
·2 min read
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SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) — Private Adrian Matthew Turner, a 24-year-old Upstate soldier, was killed during a training exercise at the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Moore in Georgia on March 22.

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His family said he was in weapons training with his unit when he suffered a fatal gunshot wound.

“He’d be the one to help an old lady cross the street or something like that, to carry your groceries to the car, anything he can do to help, he’d just reach out and help and that’s just how he was,” said Felix Jim Turner III, Adrian’s father.

Turner was born and raised in Duncan, and his father said he enlisted in the Army and went to boot camp at Fort Moore on January 31 because he wanted to follow in his relatives’ footsteps by serving his country.

“He said I’d like to be like them, they served their country and I’d like to serve my country,” said Turner. “He just always had a love and attraction for that, and I’ll always be proud of him for that, my baby boy what can I say.”

Turner’s loved ones are using memories of him as a way to get through this loss together.

“I wouldn’t wish this on my biggest enemy, no, burying my parents was very rough but they say that’s the way of the world, this isn’t,” said Turner. “This is not the way of the world.”

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They said they’ll miss his intelligence and kindness the most.

“I was always telling him how proud I was of him, very smart, he would just sit and read the dictionary just to read and I’d go how do you spell this word, what does it mean, because you’d have to ask Adrian,” said Turner.

While Turner’s family knows not everyone knew him the way they did, they said regardless, his loss impacts so many.

“The world has lost a great gift, I know he could have contributed greatly, he had many different areas he wanted to go into, and he was so smart he could have gone into any of them, but the world has lost a lot,” said Turner. “I know I may be biased but that’s true, they have lost a lot.”

The army is still investigating Turner’s death.

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