National Guardsman drowns in Destin

A 20-year-old U.S. Army National Guardsman from Mobile, Ala. drowned Thursday after falling off a kayak in the Gulf of Mexico in Destin.

The victim, Joshua Terrell Cooper, and fellow Guardsman Morris Rogers were on the 13- foot kayak in chest-deep water when a wave flipped them, according to Investigator Eddie Gatlin with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Rogers told investigators Cooper began struggling and he tried to save him, but other waves pushed them into deeper water. Rogers, himself, had to be rescued.

The kayak flipped about 11:30 a.m. in the surf about 200 yards west of the Back Porch restaurant. Neither man wore a life jacket.

Cooper and Rogers were assigned to a National Guard unit in Dothan, Ala. Their unit is reportedly scheduled to be deployed to Iraq in the coming weeks.

Cooper's death is the 28th confirmed boating fatality in Florida since Jan. 1.