The Geary County Sheriff’s Department has identified the victim in a drowning that occurred at Milford Lake on Tuesday as Thomas Hedrick, 31, Fort Riley.  Hedrick was a soldier.

The Sheriff’s Department said deputies responded at 7:40 a.m. Tuesday to Milford Lake for a person stranded on the water in a homemade boat.  Two Fort Riley soldiers were duck hunting around Charley’s Point on the lake.

Hedrick got into a boat and went to retrieve a duck they had shot. Sheriff Tony Wolf said the boat began to take on water. “He had no motor in this little boat, no paddle in this little boat. The wind blew him over to the ice sheet. ”  Wolf added Hedrick tried to get out of the boat onto an ice sheet, and that ice sheet would not support his weight.