Teenage PA National Guard Soldier Collapses, Dies

PENNSYLVANIA — A 17-year-old Pennsylvania resident who had enlisted in the National Guard with her twin sister has died just days after collapsing during basic combat training, Army officials confirmed.

Private First Class Alyssa Cahoon, of Forest City in Susquehanna County, was training with the 1st Batallion, 34th Regiment at Fort Jackson in South Carolina when she collapsed on Aug. 20, her family said. The Batallion said she died Aug. 25 with her family at her side.

An exact cause of death has not been announced, but in a public social media post her family noted that Alyssa suffered from a heart abnormality. They said they were told by doctors that it was "completely undetectable."

Alyssa and her twin sister Brianna were nine weeks into their basic combat training and were set to graduate five days before the incident occurred.

Brianna also has the abnormality and will receive an internal defibrillator as a precaution.

The twins were featured by the National Guard in July in a special Facebook post.

"Check out Bravo Company's twin Trainees Brianna and Alyssa Cahoon," the post reads. "They are both 42A Human Resource Specialists. How cool is it that they get to go through Basic Combat Training together?! They qualified on their rifles with Back-up Iron Sights today!"

Army officials are investigating the incident.