Am I thinking too much when such an exercise with a propensity for such accidents would be a way of sanitizing covert losses in places where people can’t officially die?
Our military has always tried to train as it fights, and that means there is significant risk involved.
Don’t know if they still do things that way.
When I was in the USN, I was astonished at the number of military aircraft mishaps there were (I was reading monthly publications with accident reports and such) and I saw in my short career five different mishaps, three with fatalities. (One I didn’t actually see, an A-6 just went out while we were in the Bermuda Triangle and never came back. No communication, just disappeared.)
We hear more about it now due to the nature of the Internet, but back then, unless you lived in an area that had a Naval Air Station near it, or an accident actually happened in an inhabited area, the world at large was mostly unaware of it.
And when you look at military aircraft losses over the years between 1945 and 1970, the numbers are staggering!
Heh, I guess planes are too expensive to crash as often now, are more reliable, or we just have fewer of them.
“Crash site in the Arctic Ocean” but they recovered all four bodies.
Hmmmmm…..
Yes you are, this exercise is an annual event and training accidents are a fact of military life.
I was at Hill AFB, circa 1980 or 81 when a T-38 with the Thunderbirds crashed during a performance at an open house for the base. My brother broke his arm during basic training. I’m sure my brother, nephews, or cousins who served were involved in and/or knew of multiple accidents during their careers.