Mendez Covarrubias, Juan Miguel

Specialist Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias was a 27-year-old soldier from Hanford, California. He served as an AH-64 Apache helicopter repairer with the 1st Battalion, 227th Aviation Regiment, 1st Air Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, based at Fort Hood, Texas.

On March 11, 2020, Mendez Covarrubias was killed in a rocket attack on Camp Taji, a large Iraqi military base north of Baghdad that also housed U.S.-led coalition personnel. The attack, reportedly involving more than a dozen Katyusha-style rockets, killed two American service members and one British soldier, and wounded at least 14 others.

Mendez Covarrubias died during Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led military intervention against the Islamic State (ISIL) in Iraq and Syria. The attack occurred more than a year after the territorial defeat of ISIL's so-called caliphate in 2019, as the mission shifted to training and advising Iraqi forces. The period saw a significant escalation in rocket and mortar attacks by Iran-aligned militias on bases hosting coalition troops.

The U.S. Department of Defense confirmed his death the following day. In response to the attack, U.S. forces conducted airstrikes against five weapons storage facilities used by Kata'ib Hezbollah and other Iranian-backed groups in Iraq.

He was posthumously promoted from Private First Class to Specialist. Mendez Covarrubias is memorialized at the 1st Cavalry Division Memorial Park at Fort Hood and on the online memorial of the 1st Cavalry Division Association.

Juan Miguel Mendez Covarrubias was killed during Operation Inherent Resolve (ongoing since August 2014). See the full roster of those killed in this conflict.

Among those documented in the same conflict: Villotcarrasco, Yeshabel, Spears, Jordan Lee, Walker, Jonathan Doyle, Neal, Sean Patrick.

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