Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson near Achorage is home to Alaskan Command, U.S. Army Alaska, 11th Air Force, the Alaska National Guard and other commands. (Haley Stevens/U.S. Air Force)

A soldier at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for a drunken-driving crash that killed a member of his unit who had enlisted less than a year earlier, the Army said Monday.

Pfc. Andy Ramos, 19, faced a court-martial Sept. 2 at the Alaska base for driving while drunk May 28 with a car filled with soldiers, resulting in a crash that killed Pfc. Arath Esau Martinez-Arguelles, 20, of Sherman Oaks, Calif.

Ramos and Martinez-Arguelles served together in the 6th Brigade Engineer Battalion of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) at Elmendorf-Richardson, which is near Anchorage.

Martinez-Arguelles, a mechanic, enlisted in June 2022 and had been with the unit in Alaska since March. Ramos was a combat engineer.

Ramos pleaded guilty to negligent homicide and driving a vehicle while intoxicated resulting in personal injury. As part of the proceedings, Ramos accepted a plea agreement that includes his demotion to private and a dishonorable discharge upon his release from confinement, Army spokesman John Pennell said.

An Army investigation found Ramos and other soldiers had been drinking on base May 28, the Sunday of the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

Five soldiers got into a vehicle with Ramos driving.

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