For the second time in little more than a week, an Army drill sergeant from Alabama has been found dead on base at Fort Jackson, S.C.

Base officials said 30-year-old Staff Sgt. Zachary L. Melton, a native of Huntsville, was found dead in his vehicle Saturday after he failed to report for work. Melton was attached to the 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, stationed at Fort Jackson.

Emergency medical service personnel were summoned to the scene, but Melton was pronounced dead shortly after they arrived.

“We are extremely saddened by the loss of Staff Sgt. Melton,” said Brig. Gen. Jason E. Kelly, Fort Jackson commanding general, in a statement. “Our thoughts are with his family and the soldiers of the Always Forward battalion during this very emotional time.”

Melton’s had served in the Army for a decade, with the last three as a drill sergeant at Fort Jackson. His awards and commendations include the Army Commendation Medal with C (combat) device; three Army Commendation Medals; two Army Achievement Medals; the National Defense Service Medal; Afghanistan Campaign Medal with campaign star; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon; Army Service Ribbon; and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ribbon.

Melton’s unit had just completed its final cycle of basic training last Thursday and he was on a break, according to the Army. No cause of manner of death has been announced, but the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division is investigating.

Eight days earlier, Staff Sgt. Allen Burtram, 34, was found dead on base after he also failed to report for work that day. Criminal Investigations said they are still investigating Burtram’s death, but foul play is not suspected, according to Army officials.

Burtram was from Cleveland, about 40 miles northeast of Birmingham. He had served in the Army for 12 years, with the last 18 months at Fort Jackson. Included in his service were eight months deployed to Kuwait and a year in Korea, according to the Army.

Fort Jackson is near Columbia, S.C., and home to over 3,500 active duty personnel. It is the Army’s largest basic training center, with an estimated 50 percent of all soldiers entering the Army receiving their training at Fort Jackson.

A 2021 study by Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, researchers surveying 856 drill sergeants found 19% of them suffered from depression, 27% had symptoms of moderate to severe insomnia, and 35% reported abusing alcohol, according to Military.com.

A drill sergeant’s workday is nearly 15 hours long, and they work an average of 6.4 days per week. With drill sergeants serving a minimum of two years in the role, that level of intensity is “extreme, even within the Army,” the study found.