U.S. Military IDs Two Navy Members Killed in Crash Near Pendleton Early Thursday

The U.S. military Friday has identified two Navy members who were killed Thursday along with a third as-yet-unidentified person in an early-morning traffic pileup on I-5 near Camp Pendleton.

38-year-old Jess Davis of Tennessee and 37-year-old Stephen Williams of Texas were among a group of four whose motorcycles crashed into vehicles that had collided and become disabled in the southbound lanes of the freeway in the area of Las Pulgas Road at about 3 a.m. Thursday, according to the Navy and the California Highway Patrol.

Williams and Davis died at the scene of the accident along with one of the other motorcyclists. The third rider’s name has not been released.

Paramedics took the fourth motorcyclist to a hospital for treatment of serious trauma, along with four other people who suffered injuries of varying degrees of severity in the wreck, the CHP said.

Davis served aboard the Point Loma-based attack submarine USS Alexandria, and Williams was assigned to Southwest Regional Maintenance Center in San Diego, Navy spokesman Brian O’Rourke said.

City News Service contributed to this report.